Baghdatis hoping for a good night in Vienna

Marcos Baghdatis will face Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain in the first round of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy 2006 in Vienna tomorrow evening hoping to pick up plenty of points to boost his chances of making next month’s Masters Cup in Shanghai.

Should Baghdatis overcome Hidalgo he will face the winner from the match between the wild card holder Austrian Stefan Koubek and Denis Gremelmayr of Germany. The fourth-seeded Cypriot was forced to withdraw from the Thailand Open in Bangkok earlier this month due to a shoulder injury sustained prior to the tournament, and the recovery process prevented him from playing at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo which resulted in him relinquishing the eighth and final place in the standings for the Masters Cup.

Baghdatis missed out on race points and the American James Blake winning in Bangkok, the young Cypriot fell to ninth place with 369 points. Spaniard Tommy Robredo is currently seventh with 386 points, while the Argentinean David Nalbandian occupies the eight place with 370 points.

Nalbandian is also playing in Vienna this week and will face his compatriot Juan Ignacio Chela in his first round encounter. He could potentially meet Baghdatis in the final.

At the same time James Blake who is sixth in the race with 396 points is participating in the IF Stockholm Open. Croatian Mario Ancic in tenth place with 344 points and Tommy Robreto were eliminated in the quarter-finals in Tokyo on Friday afternoon.

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