China's national champion Zeng Shaoxuan walked off court with his head held high despite losing to defending champion Marcos Baghdatis at the China Open yesterday.

The 26-year-old local qualifier, competing in his first second-round match at an ATP tournament, pushed the Cypriot hard before conceding 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.

"I played at my highest level," Zeng said after the match.

"I didn't give myself any pressure, and I just try to play aggressive and go to the net as much as possible.

"I think my tactics paid off as I kept on pushing him and had a lot of winners from the net."

The third-seeded Baghdatis, who won his first ATP title here last year, is ranked some 700 spots higher than his opponent, but the match was not as lop-sided as the ratings gap suggests.

In front of 3,000 home fans crowd, Zeng hung on at 3-3 after exchanging breaking serves with his more fancied opponent in the first set.

He opted for an all-out serve-and-volley attack that made Baghdatis uncomfortable under the constant pressure.

The 26-year-old from Jiangsu rallied from triple breakpoint down in the tenth game to hold and pull even; then seized a 6-5 lead as the drama built. But in the tiebreak Zeng opened the door to Baghdatis with five consecutive unforced errors.

Baghdatis didn't let the chance slip away as he closed out the first set with a deft cross-court drive that had Zeng diving in vain.

Zeng bounced back in the second set and managed to improve his returns, which helped him break serve twice to tie the score 5-5. But Baghdatis' greater weight of shot and power serving proved too much for Zeng in crucial points.

Having broken serve to lead 6-5, the world No 18 set up his first match point with a thumping cross-court forehand and then wrapped up the one-hour and 48-minute match as Zeng hit a backhand into the net.

"It's a pity that I held some chances but failed to convert them to win," said a disappointed Zeng. "If I was given a bit of luck, maybe the result would be different."

His performance won high praise from his opponent.

"It's a tough match," said Baghdatis. "He played really good, and gave me a hard time. I don't know how he played before, but tonight he was pretty impressive."

Having enjoyed a miraculous rise this season when he soared to No 8, the Cypriot is looking to reprise his 2006 Australian Open form to make a splash in Grand Slam events.

But there won't be any easy clashes for him in Beijing as he is expected to face former world No 3 Ivan Ljubicic in the quarterfinals and world No 8 Tommy Robredo in the semis.

Earlier yesterday, Ljubicic, seeking redemption from his third-round exit last week at Flushing Meadows, out muscled Japanese hopeful Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-4.

(China Daily September 12, 2007)