Our Champion Marcos Baghdatis, following his recent back injury sustained at the Metz tournament five weeks ago, continued his bad luck during this season, ending up his last tournament of the year in Bercy with one more withdrawal from the game.
Our Champion was forced to unfortunately withdraw in the final set of his first round match against the American Sam Querrey, being 3-2 games down, trying to overcome severe pains in his body, which at the end seemed to be unbearable. Marcos, despite this withdrawal, showed signs of playing much better tennis than what he did in the Basel tournament last week.
As he described the situation after a question posed by the French media, he did not want to risk his already bad injured back, "...I am suffering from a slipped disc since the tournament of Metz...today, I had an intense pain at the back during the third set...I didn't want to take any risks...the doctors had already advised me not to play in Paris...I love this tournament and I feel very good here...the Stadium is excellent, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of the circuit...I have many friends and my family there therefore I wanted to play..."
Our Champion will now take the necessary time-off to relax, work on his tennis intensively during the upcoming winter, and try to get back more solidly, in an effort to step up his pace for the next year's ATP season.
 |