Cyprus' Marcos Baghdatis was upset by Stefan Koubek of Austria, 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the second round of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy on Thursday.
Baghdatis outplayed wild card Koubek in the first set, but found himself soon at 1-4 down in the second. The Australian Open finalist, coming back after missing two weeks due to a shoulder injury, got the re-break but lost in the tiebreaker. From 2-2 in the third set, Baghdatis lost four games in row.
``I was just too nervous at the beginning and needed a set to settle down. I was surprised myself that I could turn the match around,'' Koubek said.
The Austrian will play Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia in the quarter-finals. Earlier, Andy Roddick of the United States came back from a set down to beat Richard Gasquet of France 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3.
Roddick looked annoyed near the end of the first set after having repeated disputes with the umpire about line calls. In the tiebreaker, the third-seeded Roddick dropped a decisive point when a man in the crowd shouted during a second serve.
But in the second set, the American broke Gasquet's serve immediately and dominated from there.
``I was unlucky in the first set. But I was hitting the balls very well, so that gave me confidence for the rest of the match,'' Roddick said.
Roddick will face Jurgen Melzer in the quarter-finals. Austria's top player needed well over two hours to defeat qualifier Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in a scrappy match.
``I have played a lot of matches lately and was very tired after yesterday's Ferrero game, but my positive thinking kept me going,'' Melzer said.
Second-seeded David Nalbandian beat Oliver Marach 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Although Nalbandian saved five break points in the first set and was a break down early in the second, he was never in real trouble against an opponent who only got 43 per cent of his first serve in and was broken four times.
The Argentine meets fifth-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in the next round.
Stanislas Wawrinka ousted eighth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-3.
The 21-year-old Swiss held his serve throughout the match, while Djokovic _ who won the Open de Moselle on Sunday _ won only 54 per cent of points on his own serve.
Wawrinka will play top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia in the quarter-finals.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
