For about a set and a half, Federer looked like he was in control, at least on his own serve.  When Fed would serve, he’d win quick points usually at 15, and be ready for his opponent.  When Baghdatis was serving, Fed would make errors, as he is wont to do.   Fed then had a break in the first set where Baghdatis made more errors than he did.  It seemed only a matter of time before Fed’s game would settle down and he’d win a hard-fought, but straight-forward victory.

At least, it seemed this way in the second set.  While on serve in the early parts of the second set, Baghdatis feel behind 15-40, double match point, but played some aggressive points and held.  He proceeded to break Federer’s serve as Fed started to miss more and more shots and took the set, 7-5.

After uncharacteristically yielding the second set, it looked like Fed was going to win when he got an early break in the third set. But Baghdatis was able to break back to tie it up and force a tiebreak.  The tiebreak was close when Baghdatis got ahead, making Fed net a volley, something he had done several times, then closed it out with a service winner.

This loss seemed kinda typical of Fed’s losses.  He goes for shots, but makes way too many errors, and his opponent works hard to win games, and does just enough to keep in the match without making too many errors of his own.  Fed ended up with some 46 errors and just didn’t seem to be able to reign in his shots.  In particular, Federer didn’t fight off break points very well.  Well, at least he has a week and a half to train for Miami.

Final score: 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4).

Federer rarely loses this early in a tournament.  He generally loses in the quarters or semis.  Losing in the 3rd round is pretty unusual, but Baghdatis has made the finals of the Australian Open (losing to Federer), so he is capable of playing good tennis.

Other scores.  Robredo had an easy win over Dudi Sela, 6-3, 6-0.  Andy Roddick had a solid win over Thiemo de Bakker, 6-3, 6-4.  Andy Murray was caught in a tight second set, but managed a late break to win 6-3, 7-5.  James Blake had a very testy affair with the umpire, criticizing him throughout the match, but eventually lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to Nicolas Almagro.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga needed three sets to be Albert Montanes.  Robin Soderling beat Feliciano Lopez in straight sets, 7-6(3), 6-4.

Tomorrow, all the remaining men play matches.

John Isner plays Rafael Nadal tomorrow.  This is their first meeting.  Marcos Baghdatis plays Tommy Robredo.  Jurgen Melzer takes on Andy Roddick.  Andy Murray will play Nicolas Almagro.

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez plays Juan Monaco.  Novak Djokovic will play Ivan Ljubicic.  Victor Troicki takes on Tomas Berdych.  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga plays Robin Soderling.

Of the top 6 seeds, Federer and Davydenko are out, but Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, and Soderling are still in the tournament.