| Friday, 27 June 2008 Written by Byron Vale and Michael Burke Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus showed the difference between a top 10 seed and a qualifier with his 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Simon Stadler. Stadler started strongly but he was slowly suffocated of opportunities and eventually wilted at the hands of the 10th seed. Had the German won the tie-break, the match would have had a different tone. But he didn’t and from that point on he was a spectator as Baghdatis swept to victory. Baghdatis never gave his opponent another opportunity to break his serve, while the Cypriot took his only chance in the second set and two chances in the third. Baghdatis, who was placed in the same quarter of the draw as Novak Djokovic, David Nalbandian and Ivo Karlovic, now finds himself with only 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka standing between him and a semi-final. After missing much of the season for personal reasons, Baghdatis appeared in good form on grass at Halle prior to Wimbledon until he lost to Roger Federer in the quarter-finals, but then again, doesn’t everybody. Fernando Verdasco, the 22nd seed from Spain, recently posed naked for a women’s magazine but the player left exposed on No 2 Court was his opponent, 11th seed Thomas Berdych. The left-handed Verdasco was ruthless, winning 90 per cent of his first service points and unleashing a barrage of forehand winners to ease into the fourth round 6-4, 6-4, 6-0. Verdasco rates his forehand as his favourite shot and on this evidence it is easy to see why. Points were evenly contested until the world number 18 was able to get himself into position to fire down an unreturnable forehand. He hit 49 winners compared to Berdych’s 21, landed 11 aces compared to four and had 10 breaks points while Berdych had none. In fact, so great was the chasm between the two players that the closest Berdych came to a break was when he twice led 0-15 on the 24-year-old’s serve. Berdych could do nothing to neutralise the Spaniard’s forehand and even when he did, Verdasco produced a drop shot or double backhand winner to claim the point. Verdasco said afterwards that he felt very comfortable on the lawns of SW19. "I always play good on grass," he said. Verdasco, who only broke into the world’s top 20 for the first time two weeks ago, will play either Mario Ancic or David Ferrer in the fourth round, his first appearance at this stage of the tournament. Meanwhile, Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka was well on his way to the fourth round when his opponent Mischa Zverev was forced to retire from their match. Wawrinka was two sets to love up against his German opponent who was not just struggling with injury, but also struggling to cope with Wawrinka’s skills. The Swiss world number nine is a good friend of compatriot Roger Federer and, based on this display, some of Federer’s magic has clearly rubbed off. Wawrinka took a while before he was firing on all cylinders and this was evident in the third game where he had to defend four break points. But, at 5-5, Zverev, who had been carefully implementing his net rush policy to some success, was blown apart by a series of phenomenal backhand returns, leaving the giant German stranded at the net admiring the brilliance of the 13th seed.
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