In a game full of tension and unforced errors, the No. 1 player in the world, Roger Federer, was ousted from the BNP Paribas Open held at Indian Wells. Federer shockingly lost against the Cyprian Marcos Baghdatis 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4) in the third round of the tournament.

This is the first time in 7 encounters that Baghdatis has been able to defeat the Swiss player. Even though the Cyprian left with victory, the match was easy for neither him nor his opponent.

Federer had a chance to win the match in two sets but wasted the opportunity, giving Baghdatis the chance to go to a third set where the Cyprian took advantage of every one of Federer’s mistakes. Baghdatis forced a tiebreaker in the last moment and won.

Federer began winning the first set 7-5, breaking the Cyprian’s serve and looking as confident as always. He headed to a second set that seemed a little more difficult, while Baghdatis looked more and more calm. Baghdatis started taking advantage of Federer’s mistakes, while the Swiss player began to look tense. He lost the second set.

Federer began the third set strong, winning 4-1 before Baghdatis suddenly decided to wake up. The Cyprian took off, breaking Federer’s serve twice. The Swiss had 3 chances for a match point in the 12th game of the set, but he netted a backhand and set a deuce that was taken by Baghdatis to force a tiebreak.

The tiebreak was another disaster for the Swiss; he committed seven errors in total, including netting a forehand volley to set up Baghdatis' first match point that the Cyprian took for his first victory over the Swiss in his professional career.

Federer looked very disappointed at the end of the game, trying to understand what had happened on the court.

"I just couldn't find the way to win," Federer said. "I was maybe one shot away, maybe wrong choices at the wrong time, maybe playing too passively. I should never be in a breaker, so why analyze the breaker?"

Federer has won the Indian Wells tournament on three occasions while Bagdhatis is looking for his first victory in this tournament.

Baghdatis was very pleased with the result of the match, stating that it was the best win of his entire career. He kissed the court and then stated that he had been defeated by the top players many times and that it was a relief to finally defeat one of them.

The No 2 of the world, Novak Djokovic, was also ousted from the BNP Paribas Open. Djokovik was defeated by the Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, 7-5 6-3, falling in just two sets to give the victory to the Croat in the fourth round of the tournament.

Ljubicic was able to break Djokovic’s serve in the sixth game of the second set but then, with two aces, set two match points to take the victory. With 13 aces in total the Croat imposed his game. This is the second time in seven matches that the Croat has been able to defeat the Serbian.

In the quarter-finals, the Croat will meet 21st seed Juan Monaco of Argentina, who beat Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 3-6, 6-2 6-1 earlier on Wednesday.

About the Author

Audrey Nolan has been a prominent writer on daily ATP Tennis Games; sports news and the sportsbetting industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.