TENNIS in DEPTH.

Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus overcame the distraction of a lengthy rain interruption to beat France’s Richard Gasquet 6-4 7-6 in the final of the Sydney International on Saturday.

Baghdatis, who burst on to the world stage when he made the Australian Open final in 2006, regained his composure after a lapse in concentration to claim his fourth ATP title in the final lead-up event before the first grand slam of 2010.

The 24-year-old made a flying start at the Sydney Olympic tennis centre, breaking Gasquet’s opening service game then taking the first set, but lost his way after a 75-minute delay early in the second set.

Gasquet quickly established a 5-2 lead and served for the set but Baghdatis broke back and eventually sealed victory in the tiebreak.

Baghdatis has been plagued with injuries over the past two seasons and was reduced to playing on the Challenger circuit last year.

He won three Challenger titles as well as an ATP event at Stockholm and has been great form this past week, advancing to to the final after tough three-set wins over Lleyton Hewitt and Mardy Fish.

Baghdatis is drawn to play Italian Paolo Lorenzi in his opening match at the Australian Open.

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Marcos Baghdatis stole the show in Sydney as he knocked Australian No.1 Lleyton Hewitt out of the MediBank International with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 quarter-final victory.

The quarter-final match-up promised much after the pair had a five set classic the last time they met in the 2008 Australian Open, and they delivered again in three keenly contested sets.

Hewitt started in promising fashion, breaking Baghdatis early in the first set and hanging tough as the Cypriot pushed to level the scores.

The former world No.1 held firm, took the set and then stole a break and a 2-1 lead in the second set.

But Baghdatis lifted his play to reel off six straight games, taking the set and a 1-0 lead in the third.

A solitary service break was then enough to secure the decider for the 2006 Australian Open finalist who finished off the four-time Sydney champion with an ace.

Baghdatis will now take on Mardy Fish.

Meanwhile former world No.7 Richard Gasquet booked a semi-final spot for a second successive year after beating Italy’s Potito Starace 6-3 7-6 (9-7).

Gasquet looked in fine touch, showing the class that made him a top 10 player before his two-and-a-half month ban after testing positive to cocaine last year.

He’ll meet countryman Julien Benneteau after his 6-4 6-7 (7-5) 6-0 win over Argentine Leonardo Mayer.

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Richard Gasquet continues to do all the right things as he booked his place in the quarterfinals at the Brisbane International today where he will meet top seed Andy Roddick.

Gasquet extinguished West Australian qualifier Matt Ebden’s hopes of a fairytale ATP debut when he defeated him in straight sets, 6-3 6-4 in just under 80 minutes.

Despite the humid conditions, Gasquet’s class shone through on an otherwise overcast day.

Gasquet said he was happy with the win, but felt he has some room for improvement going into his next match.

“I played better in the first round, but this match is not the same, it is not centre court, it is not the same player – he has nothing to lose,” said Gasquet.

“I had everything to lose against him today, he’s a great player [he] serves well and moves well.”

Gasquet said he was looking forward to not being the favourite in his next match – a quarterfinal appointment with No.1 seed Andy Roddick.

“I have a lot of respect for him, because he’s in the top 10 since a lot of times. He’s one of the best players in the world, so I have nothing at all to lose.”

Gasquet said his plan is to enjoy Friday’s match as much as possible and try to return the best he can against the man who is “the best server in the world”.

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Richard Gasquet has been cleared of doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which dismissed appeals by sports authorities for a tougher penalty after the French tennis player tested positive for cocaine in March.

Gasquet, a former top 10 player and a Wimbledon semi-finalist, failed the original test at the Miami Masters.

The 23 year-old said traces of the drug entered his system via a woman – known only as ‘Pamela’ – who he kissed in a Miami club.

International sport’s top court acknowledged that Gasquet was likely to have been inadvertently contaminated with a minute trace of cocaine when he kissed the woman.

“The player has been exonerated from any fault or negligence and the CAS has dismissed the appeals filed by the ITF (International Tennis Federation) and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency),” the court said in a statement.

Gasquet was provisionally suspended in May before serving a two-and-a-half month retroactive ban.

The ITF and WADA wanted him to be hit with a ban of one or two years.

The Lausanne-based court’s arbitrators said that a doping offence was correctly reported because of the presence of a “minusucle” quantity of cocaine in Gasquet’s urine sample.

However, they upheld Gasquet’s contention that he was contaminated through kissing and concluded that he could not be blamed.

“On a balance of probability, the CAS panel concluded that it was more likely than not that the player’s contamination with cocaine resulted, as Gasquet always asserted, from kissing a woman in a nightclub in Miami on the day before the anti-doping test.

“It was impossible for the player, even when exercising the utmost caution, to know that in kissing a woman who he had met in a totally unsuspicious environment, he could be contaminated with cocaine,” the statement added.

The CAS found that Gasquet “had met the required standards of proof with respect to the way of ingestion.”

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Today will see another development in Gasquet’s ‘Cocaine Kiss’ controversy, as the Frenchman is not playing at the Paris Masters and is instead expected in Lausanne, for a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In July, an independent tribunal cleared Gasquet – who was initially suspended for 2½-months – to return to the tour, after accepting his story that he failed a drugs test in March because the substance had entered his system after he kissed a girl known only as ‘Pamela’ in a Miami nightclub the evening before.

 But the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Tennis Federation have appealed to the court in Lausanne, requesting that he should be banned for at least a year, perhaps even the maximum two years.

Gasquet told the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Today that he failed a drug test in March because he kissed a woman in a nightclub who contaminated him with cocaine.

He was suspended for 2 1/2 months, but the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Tennis Federation appealed to CAS to give him a doping ban of at least one year.

CAS secretary-general Matthieu Reeb said a verdict is expected in early December.

“Everything went as expected and Richard Gasquet has, of course, had his chance to speak,” Reeb said after the seven-hour hearing.

“Now the arbitrators will begin their deliberations, which are going to take around three to four weeks until a final judgment will be communicated to the parties.”

That would allow Gasquet, who was suspended for the French Open and Wimbledon, to prepare for the Australian Open in January if he is cleared by the CAS panel of three lawyers.

The timing of Agassi’s autobiography Open is unlikely to have helped Gasquet’s cause.

Will Agassi’s admission in his book that he avoided a ban for crystal meth by claiming he had inadvertently taken the stimulant when sipping from a friend’s spiked soda cast a shadow on Gasquet’s defence? The authorities will decide.

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Born 15 days apart, the powerful Spanish lefty and the Frenchman with the amazing, flawless one-handed backhand are prodigies who have been playing each other since they were preteens, however, as their careers have progressed; it is Rafa who holds the lead with a perfect 6-0 lifetime advantage, which includes three consecutive hard-court victories since 2007.

“He has the potential of one of the very best and if he has a good day it will be a very tough match,” he said about one of his closest friends on the tour.

“Psychologically for me now, I [feel] perfect,” said Rafa, “After an important break, I came back with more energy than ever. Probably I need more time to be ready, to get the rhythm, to play your best tennis, but the energy and the illusion is 100%”.

Rafa and Gasquet have become very close friends this year after Richard’s 3-month suspension and Rafa’s 2-month injury, “If he ever needed me, I’d be there for him. I’ll try to beat him — this is sports — but I will never forget that,” said Richard at a pre-tournament interview.

Both guys come into the last Grand Slam of the season with very little match practice. In Rafa’s case, he returned to action in Montreal a couple of weeks ago where he advanced to the quarterfinals and one week later, he made it to the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati.

Richard on the other hand has even less practice with only two qualifying matches in New Haven this past weekend.

“You’d have to be a masochist to want to play Nadal in the first round,” said Richard. “If I could have played someone else, I would have done that with great pleasure. But that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is to compete again”.

Wednesday’s match between the two players is anything but one-sided. It will definitely be one not to miss. They are scheduled third late Wednesday afternoon on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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Two months on the sidelines nursing tendinitis in both knees will not derail Rafa Nadal’s bid for the only grand slam to elude him, the Spanish world number three said as the U.S. Open kicks off in New York.

“I am not scared,” the 23-year-old Mallorcan told Spain’s El Pais daily. “I was out for two months and then (this month) I got to the quarter-finals at the Montreal Masters and the semis at the Cincinnati Masters.

“I know that here (at the U.S. Open) a quarter-final or a semi would be a very good result but I am coming to win,” added the six-times grand slam winner.

“When I retire nobody will remember if I get to quarters or semis.”

Australian Open champion Nadal said his first-round match against Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who is making his return after a ban for inadvertently taking cocaine, could be very difficult.

“He has the potential of one of the very best and if he has a good day it will be a very tough match,” he said.

“Although I know that if I play well I have a chance to beat Gasquet and a great deal more.”

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