TENNIS WORLD

Baghdatis pulls out

Marcos Baghdatis has notified the Cyprus Tennis Federation (CTF) that he won’t be making himself available for selection for his countries tie against Portugal on July 18 - 20.Having previously knocked out Slovenia, Cyprus, who rely almost entirely on Baghdatis when they compete in the Davis Cup, they take on favourites Portugal, with a place in the Europe/Africa Zone Group 1 up for grabs.World no. 25 Baghdadis made an early exit from Wimbledon this week after his defeat by Feliciano Lopez.He was quoted in Cyprus's Politis daily earlier in the week as saying he was pulling out of the Davis Cup because of other commitments, but would not be quitting the team indefinitely."This difficult decision was taken after serious consideration because of my heavy schedule," the paper said, quoting a written statement from the player.Baghdatis is due to participate in the U.S. Open, the Beijing Olympics and tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati."I believe that his decision has been the result of his disappointment of having exited Wimbledon in the early stages but also because of his slip down the ATP rankings", said CTF President Filios Christodoulou."This is definitely a shock for us because we didn't expect a decision like this from Marcos. Had we known about this six months ago then we could have maybe arranged other alternatives but with ten days to go before we travel to Portugal, it has definitely come as a blow.""I respect his decision despite the disappointment."