Baghdatis army marches on - Day 4

You either love him or you hate him. No, I'm not talking about Gary Neville, or Novak Djokovic. Instead I am describing my dilemma with Marcos Baghdatis. In his 2nd round match with Spain's David Ferrer, we saw his dirty side - spraying saliva and snot all over the court was not too pleasant at all. Neither was his lame attempt to fake injury as he was serving for the match, and superhumanly overcome it to hit some of the best shots he hit all match.

He did however, demonstrate his fighting spirit, coming back from a two-set deficit to take the match in five and set up a showdown with Lleyton Hewitt. I sometimes wonder how good of a player he would be minus his boisterous army of Cypriot fans.

Our second story today comes from the land of beauty queens who should be tennis players. Ana Ivanovic, following in Maria Sharapova's footsteps, will now be going all the way back home to Serbia or wherever she lives, as she was dumped out at the 2nd round by diminutive Argentinian Gisela Dulko. Dulko won in 3 sets, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4.

Roger Federer was back on court sharing centre stage with Victor Hanescu of Romania. But it wasn't his opponent who gained most of Federer's attention. The Swiss champion won the match very comfortably, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. Prince William, future King of England was in the stands watching the current King of tennis entertain us with his fluidity and elegance. When Jim Courier invited Roger to formally welcome the Prince to Australia, Federer seemed a little flustered, perhaps more amused, before composing himself and saying, "Your Royal Highness, welcome to the world of tennis, and thanks for coming." A truly magical moment which didn't involve Federer's racquet had the Prince looking a little flushed in the face. I wonder if Sir William will be viewing Andy Murray's upcoming match, or will he just stick to watching quality?

Djokovic, Haas, Verdasco, Davydenko and Tsonga all came through their matches, as did the Williams sisters, Azarenka, Li Na and Wozniacki. The draw is beginning to take shape and the matches are going to be getting a whole lot bigger as we move into the second week of action. Stay tuned.