Cypriot tennis star Marcos Baghdatis to play at City of Onkaparinga ATP Challenger

HE’S the Cypriot tennis star Australia has a huge soft spot for — and now Marcos Baghdatis is headed to Adelaide’s south for a tennis competition.

Beloved Baghdatis heads to Adelaide’s south

HAPPY Valley Tennis Club president Simon Longhurst is still pinching himself this week after receiving word Cypriot-cult-figure Marcos Baghdatis is headed to the southern suburbs.

The former World No. 8 will play at the City of Onkaparinga ATP Challenger next month in a coup Longhurst believes will draw a huge crowd to the host club and create flow-on benefits for traders.

“It’s going to be enormous for the event,’’ Longhurst said.

“It’s going to create some media interest around the event which is going to draw people here.

“I think there’s every possibility that we’ll fill every seat there is here.”

Longhurst estimates the Happy-Valley-centre-court capacity is about 1000.

Baghdatis is currently ranked No. 85 in the world and will be in Adelaide to play the World Tennis Challenge later in January.

His addition to the Happy Valley event is a dream come true for Longhurst who 18 months ago considered shelving it because of the cost and difficulty finding volunteers.

In a last-ditch effort, he approached Onkaparinga Council and asked for $50,000 to upgrade the event from a third-tier tournament to a second-tier ATP Challenger.

The council obliged and the event now carries serious rankings points meaning players ranked as high as about No. 75 in the world will play.

Longhurst expected to confirm another former-world-top 20-player’s entry later this week.

Happy Valley will not setup a temporary stand for the event because of the associated costs, but will gauge the need for one in future years based on attendances next month.

The event will be the first ATP-tour-level tournament held in SA since Memorial Drive lost the Australian Men’s Hardcourt Championship to Brisbane last decade.

Longhurst said it filled a major gap in Tennis Australia’s summer calendar because it meant players ranked in the lower part of the top 100 could play a lead-up event to the Australian Open in Australia and not abroad.