Marcos was born June 17, 1985 in Limassol to a Lebanese father and a Greek-Cypriot mother. He began playing tennis at a very young age. By the tender age of 4, he started playing tennis in the road near his house, having as his opponent the walls of the neighbor’s house. Suddenly, he changed his mind and he wanted to be a football player for his favorite team in Cyprus, Apollon Limassol, but fortunately his father insistence and his brothers’ success in tennis kept him in the sport. Marcos has two older brothers, Marinos and Petros, whom also played tennis, mostly for their universities in the US where they received scholarships. Petros is still a member of the Cyprus National Team. “Marcos was impressed by his brothers’ success in the sport and he wanted to do the same”, says Marcos’ father, who was the man who influenced the love of the sport in his sons.

The Wonderkid

A Bulgarian coach named Kiril Yashmakov was another man that played an important role in Marcos’ progress through the years, watching him play tennis in the Sporting Club in Limassol. Kiril admitted to Marcos’ father that this was the first time he had observed a boy with so much talent. That was the moment that Christos Baghdatis made some serious decisions. He was sure that Marcos was going to be a champion someday and he needed to prepare him with discipline, hard work and solidarity. Christos Baghdatis started preparing his son to be a champion, but in order to do that he had to move his family away from their residence in Limassol to a small village called “Paramitha” (fairytale in English) where they bought a small house. The reason may seem simple but it’s not. Marcos had to be away from all the attritions that a big city like Limassol can cause. Meanwhile, Marcos’ parents had to travel everyday to Limassol in order for him to be able to train there.

The coach who gave Marcos the opportunity to compete in various world tournaments was Jan Dobreskou (Romanian) who took him to Romania to compete in many tournaments across the country. Marcos was 12 years old when he impressed the Romanian reporters and found himself the headline of some Romanian newspapers. During the night Marcos was sleeping in his coach’s car and the rest of the day he was playing tennis.

The problems

Unfortunately, Marcos had to face a huge barrier in order to become a champion. He was born on a tiny island with barely any tennis infrastructures. As a result, his family made many economic and personal sacrifices, funding their son to compete in tournaments around the globe. When Marcos was 14 years old he had already won all the major U-18 tournaments in Cyprus and many people began believing in his talent, especially the coach that is coaching Marcos today, Yiannos Hadjigeorgiou. The time for Marcos had come to make the biggest step in his career and transfer to an exceptional tennis academy outside Cyprus. During a tournament in Italy, a scout from Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France watched him competing and immediately asked Marcos’ parents to enroll him there. The question then was how they would be able to pay 60.000 Euros a year, for at least 5 years? Despite being sponsored by the Cyprus Tennis Federation, and a scholarship by the world Olympic committee, Baghdatis’ family was 42000 Euros short. Fortunately, Mouratoglou academy decided to invest the remaining balance on Marcos’ talent and, when Marcos would become a pro, he had to pay off.

The life in the academy

At the age of 14, Marcos had to leave his family and friends in Cyprus and live in France. The first months in the academy was very difficult for him, as he admits by commenting on his first training in the academy: “It was like hell, I couldn’t move properly or even touch the ball – Jean-Paul Damit (his ex-coach) was furious. I found a telephone and called Yiannos Hadjigeorgiou in Cyprus. Yiannos told me ‘You have to give everything you’ve got, try to face and resist this shock, but if you don’t manage to sign the contract we will help you come back to Cyprus’”. Marcos owes a lot for his success to the family that accommodated him during his life in France. The Benhaim family gave him everything, but the most important for him was that he found a real friend, Benhaims son, Jean-Philippe. “The first French word that I learned during the first night was the “fart” word. It wasn’t such a nice word but it was very effective and I learned it immediately,” Marcos admits.

The Outcome

In a few years, Marcos managed to collect many trophies and, in 2003 in Australia, he became number one in juniors (U-18). The rest are most probably well known due to the huge progress he made during 2006 when he managed to reach the final round in the Australian open as an unseeded player. Soon enough he established himself in the top-15 of the ATP ranking system.

Bagh-mania Is Here To Stay!

Marcos Baghdatis may have earned the admiration of tennis fans the world over with his barnstorming run at Australian Open 2006, but there's more to his popularity than his high-energy on-court persona. The affable Cypriot's trademark million-dollar smile has endeared him to the tennis-going public and this quality was on display after his five-set victory over David Nalbandian in the semis.