Marcos Baghdatis was born on June 17th, 1985 in Limassol, Cyprus. He started playing tennis at 5 and from the age of 13 trained in Paris. He turned pro in 2004 and won several challenger tournaments in his first year as a pro. He suffered an injury setback early in 2005.

He made a real name for himself at the 2006 Australian Open. He started the tournament unseeded but beat Roddick, Ljubicic and Nalbandian to reach the final. He eventually lost to Roger Federer. Another strong performance followed at Wimbledon before he won his first ATP Tour title in Beijing.