FanHouse Marcos Baghdatis

Marcos Baghdatis, a Greek Cypriot who is one of the world's top tennis players, is drawing heavy criticism at the Australian Open after his anti-Turkish chants in this video came to light:

Some Turkish Cypriots in Australia, where Baghdatis has a third-round match scheduled Saturday, have criticized Baghdatis for the video, in which he is reportedly saying "Turks Out." The critics say the language Baghdatis uses is racist. But on Friday, Baghdatis did not back away from the comments.

"There has been a lot of coverage of me appearing in a video on YouTube.com.," Baghdatis said in a statement issued by tournament organizers.

"In that video from 2007, I was supporting the interest of my country, Cyprus, while protesting against a situation that is not recognized by the United Nations.

"Now I would like to concentrate on the tournament and ask everyone to respect that."

The video was posted to YouTube 10 months ago but was reported in the mainstream media for the first time on Friday.

Sorry, No Photos

I just got done watching Novak Djokovic defeat Marcos Baghdatis in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. As you can tell by the picture above, the match went nearly five hours, lasted five sets, and it was an utter duel that tested endurance, strength, moxie, and heart. Only a day earlier, I saw Djokovic grind for four hours in a four-set 4th round win over Lleyton Hewitt. That same day, second seed Rafael Nadal, who has since reached the semifinals, rallied from down two sets to beat Mikhail Youzhny in five, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. That was an incredible turn of events in which the better player won out in the long run. Putting all this together, plus many other years of watching both men's and women's tennis, and I'm led to conclude that the women are missing something. They are missing the magic that the men put on display at each Grand Slam event. They are missing five-set matches.

When you think of some of the greatest matches of all-time, what do you think of? You're all but guaranteed to see the 1980 Wimbledon final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe on everyone's list. Why? Not only did the match give Borg his fifth straight Wimbledon singles title, but it also went five sets, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6, with the 4th going 19-17 in a tiebreaker. The 1975 US Open semis between Guillermo Vilas and Manuel Orantes would have to make the list. Orantes rallied from down two sets and 0-5 in the fourth set -- one game away from losing, to win in five sets. The 1989 French Open Final between Michael Chang and Ivan Lendl was another legendary match. Down two sets to none, Change fought back, and eventually won it in five sets -- serving underhand in the fifth because of injury.