Roger Federer is upset by Marcos Baghdatis

Roger Federer does this. He hits a crosscourt forehand that seems headed for out of bounds until it touches the sideline. The shot comes all of a sudden just when the opponent, say, Marcos Baghdatis on a Tuesday night in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, thinks he might have a chance to trouble the world’s top-ranked player before a tournament gets to its biggest moments.

Federer usually doesn’t do this though. He doesn’t usually win a set then throw in huge handfuls of enforced errors. He doesn’t usually give himself extra work. He doesn’t usually lose.

For the first time since 2006, at a final in Rome against Rafael Nadal, Federer lost a match where he held a match point. The conqueror was the 33rd-ranked Baghdatis, who beat a No. 1-ranked player for the first time in his career. Baghdatis took out Federer, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4), in 2 hours 22 minutes in the third round.

After match point, a booming service winner from the 24-year-old, Federer walked off the court with a stunned look on his face while Baghdatis happily hit tennis balls to the crowd. It was the first time in seven tries that Baghdatis beat Federer.

This win had seemed unlikely in the fourth game of the third set when, with a flick of Federer’s racket, he broke Baghdatis’s serve to go up, 4-1. With that little edge, Federer regained control of his shots for awhile but not for long enough. Federer gave back the break and then played an uncertain tiebreak, unable to hit the ball past the constantly moving Baghdatis.

“It was one of those matches that just happens,” Federer said. “I didn’t play terrible. It just happens.”

It was unexpected to see Federer’s nonchalant brilliance disappear with a bundling of unforced errors, 44 for the match.

Federer could never quite corral his forehand or harness that signature one-handed backhand .

The stylish Baghdatis wouldn’t go away, even after Federer went ahead, 4-1, in the third set. In the seventh game, Baghdatis brought the crowd to its feet with a wicked backhand winner to get back on serve, 4-3.

Baghdatis had saved two match points in the second set and had seemed destined for a loss when Federer broke first in the third.

By the eighth game of the final set, Baghdatis had gained such confidence that he would bend over and yell at himself after he was unable to retrieve an acrobatic volley from Federer.

Afterward Federer was not overly upset.

“I was doing many things right,” he said, “but then the next thing you know, I’m stuck in a third set and you never know what’s going to happen. It was a decent match but maybe wrong choices at the wrong time for me.”

The biggest name left in the women’s draw also had a hiccup of her own.

Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki said she felt as if her legs were moving in slow motion in the second set.

But those weary legs went back to work after Wozniacki said she talked to them. The Danish teenager stayed around with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 win over Nadia Petrova.

Wozniacki’s win was a boost for a women’s draw that is already without its top-seeded player (Svetlana Kuznetsova), its third-seeded player (Victoria Azarenka) and its two biggest draws (Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin).

It was also an uneventful day for the top American left in the draw, man or woman. Seventh-seeded Andy Roddick was hardly tested in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands. There was so little of note in the win that Roddick was asked more about what sports he likes to watch outside of tennis. Whatever is in season, Roddick said, and the season now is NCAA basketball.

Fourth-seeded Andy Murray ran into the net post while trying to retrieve a Michael Russell drop shot and gave himself a black-and-blue toe, but Murray advanced with a 6-3, 7-5 win and sixth-seeded Robin Soderling also moved along without a hitch, beating Spain’s Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

Ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did have some moments of doubt but moved on, winning, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, over Albert Montanes of Spain.

Wozniacki said she was glad her legs listened when she gave them a talking to.

“I told them to keep moving,” she said, “keep going and coming into the right position because that was the most important thing today. When I stood still it was difficult to get the balls right in.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com