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Melbourne Park favourite Marcos Baghdatis says it's a "pain in the arse" Australian Open organisers keep making him play midnight matches.
Incredibly, a year after featuring in the infamous dawn showdown with Lleyton Hewitt, Baghdatis was again ordered onto court after 11.30pm for another third-round encounter early yesterday
morning.
Baghdatis, the 2006 Open runner-up, lost to Hewitt in an epic five-setter that finished at 4.34am.
This time, the Cypriot with Australian connections beat American Mardy Fish 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, but again he was the last player to leave the locker rooms after their match ended at 1.14am.
Ironically, the result for Baghdatis was the same as for Hewitt 12 months ago - a daunting fourth-round meeting with Novak Djokovic.
"I cannot say it's not a problem," Baghdatis told AAP. "It's a bit of a pain in the arse for me because the last two years I'm here I'm finishing matches after midnight and after one o'clock, we can say.
"So it's a bit of the pain in the arse, but I have nothing to do about it. It's just the way it is. I've got to accept it and find a way to get through it and that's where the challenge starts."
Baghdatis did not want to make a big deal out of his misfortune, accepting the scheduling was also difficult for Open director Craig Tiley, but said it would be impossible to catch up sleep before taking on reigning champion Djokovic tonight.
"I will wake up normal because my eyes will be open at seven or eight
o'clock like always with all the adrenaline and all the pressure," he said. "So I don't think I'll get a lot of sleep.
"I'm not complaining or stuff. I'm just saying it's tough for the players.
It happens that it's my second time in a row.
"But it doesn't matter, that's the way it is. You have to accept things and find a way to make everything good."
Baghdatis arrived in Melbourne ranked a lowly 97th in the world after injuries limited the one-time No.8 to just 12 tournaments last season. But he is growing in confidence and doesn't view Djokovic as unbeatable.
"Slowly I'm winning matches, I'm fighting like an animal, working a bit hard and it pays off, so I'm pretty happy about that," Baghdatis said.
"I have nothing to lose now, just go on the court, play my tennis, try to
win every point, find a solution and that's what I'm trying to do, so I'm very very happy.
"It's a grand slam. I'm very motivated for a grand slam, especially here in Melbourne. "I feel like I have a grand slam at home with all the crowd and stuff.
"I set as an objective to pass the first week, so I guess the objective is a bit completed.
"So I'm pretty happy, but it's not finished.."
If Baghdatis makes it past Djokovic, who is not in his best form yet, he
has an outside chance to get to the semifinal. He is drawn to meet the winner of the Andy Roddick-Tommy Robredo clash.
In fact, the men's competition is beginning to move towards its final shape now - and it looks as though Roger Federer has the best draw.
Federer is due to meet Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic today and will be a hot favourite for that.
He then has a potentially awkward quarter-final match against the winner from the clash of the two 1.98m beanpoles - Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro (the champion at Auckland's Heineken Open and the world No 9) and Marin Cilic of Croatia - the 19th seed, a young man rocketing up the rankings and in good form.
If Federer gets past that assignment - and most would say he should - he will then be into the semifinals, most likely against the winner of Roddick and either Baghdatis or Djokovic.
On the other side of the draw Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray are scheduled to meet in the semifinal although both have potential banana skins as well.
Nadal has never been past the semifinal in a hardcourt tournament and has an interesting potential fourth round opponent in 24th seed, Richard Gasquet, who can play a lot better than his current world ranking. Gasquet was last night playing 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) to set up the clash with Nadal.
Three other Frenchmen are also in the offing for the quarterfinals. Gael Monfils has rarely been extended in this tournament so far and progressed impressively into the fourth round by beating the 17th seed, Nicolas Almagro (Spain) 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 with the only difficulty being a controversy over a challenge at a crucial part of the third set.
Almagro called for a challenge after losing the point - but was denied
after the umpire decided that the Spaniard had done so only after being told to do so by his coach from the stands. It is not permitted to coach from the sidelines and the challenge was denied - and Almagro seemed to lose his cool and was beaten shortly afterwards.
Monfils is now drawn to meet fellow countryman, sixth seed and world No 7 Gilles Simon in the fourth round. Simon disposed of the troublesome, big-hitting Croatian Mario Ancic in straights sets yesterday, 7-6 6-4 6-2. Simon twice beat Federer last year and also beat Nadal - and is one of the few men to have beaten those two and Djokovic since they assumed the top three positions in world tennis.
The winner of the Simon-Monfils clash will meet Nadal in the quarter-final.
Andy Murray, meanwhile, is on a collision course with another Frenchman - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. It was Tsonga who made last year's Australian Open final (losing to Djokovic), beating Murray on the way.
Tsonga beat the stubborn Israeli Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 yesterday with no sign of his troublesome back playing up. However, Tsonga has a difficult match against ninth seed
James Blake (USA) who can be a fine touch player on his day and who beat 18th seed Igor Andreev yesterday 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Tsonga and Blake have met only once previously, with the Frenchmen winning in straight sets at last year's ATP Masters in Paris - also a hardcourt tournament.
Murray is due to meet Fernando Verdasco (Spain) first, also an awkward proposition as the 14th seed is playing well and comfortably disposed of Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-0, 6-0. However, Murray has beaten Verdasco clearly in all five of their meetings to date and has only ever lost one set to the Spaniard.
If no upset there, Murray then has either Blake or Tsonga to deal with. Murray will likely be hoping for the former. Blake has beaten Murray in their one encounter to date although it was on a clay court and Murray's form has improved vastly since then and he is a tougher opponent on hardcourt.