Baghdatis’ old confrontation pops up

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Now presenting the Australian Open, by YouTube.

This seems to have turned into an all-Internet tournament with amateur video driving the news agenda. It wasn’t long before there were video clips and photos popping up on all over the web after the controversial police confrontation with Greek fans on Tuesday night.

The pepper spray had barely cleared from the air before firestorm No. 2 hit when local media pounced on footage from last year of former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, who was waving a flare and hanging out with supporters from the Hellas Fan Club, one of whom was involved in Tuesday’s scuffle.

The group chanted, “Turks out of Cyprus,” and it was not clear from the footage whether Baghdatis was doing so too. But Baghdatis, who beat Marat Safin in a riveting five-setter in the second round, hardly sounded repentant when he issued a statement Friday afternoon.

“There has been a lot of coverage of me appearing in a video on youtube.com,” Baghdatis said. “In that video, from 2007, I was supporting the interest of my country, Cyprus, while protesting 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.”

One other point of interest in the media-fueled episode. Baghdatis’ next opponent? That would be Lleyton Hewitt.

Of Australia.

Simon says

Poor Gilles Simon.

You don’t get many chances to grab a set against someone like Rafael Nadal, let alone six of them. That’s right, 23-year-old Simon, one of the several hundred Frenchmen in the draw, had six set points in the first set against the second-seeded Nadal of Spain in their third-round match at the Australian Open on Friday.

The final three came in the 10th game when Nadal climbed out of a 0-40 hole. Simon hit a backhand wide and Nadal followed with two aces, the second of which Simon challenged.

Video replay showed the ball was good. Nadal won, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.

Meanwhile, life progressed quite nicely for the seeded players in the same neighborhood, the same half of the draw as defending champion Serena Williams, who beat 18-year-old Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, 6-3, 6-4. No. 1 Justine Henin of Belgium, No. 5 Maria Sharapova of Russia, No. 11 Elena Dementieva of Russia and No. 12 Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic all won their third rounds in straight sets.

Back to the future

Day 6 highlights: There are a handful of potentially intriguing third-round matches, including No. 8 Venus Williams-Sania Mirza; No. 12 James Blake-Sebastien Grosjean and No. 1 Roger Federer-Janko Tipsarevic. Action begins at 4 p.m. PST.

Yank, not Jankovic, watch

Oh, and Jelena Jankovic did win, fending off a spirited challenge from Virginie Razzano of France, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.

Now back to the Americans.

Two more advanced in action Thursday, after press time, in wildly differing fashions. Sam Querrey of Thousand Oaks defeated Dmitry Tursunov, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, in the second round and will play No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the third. It was Querrey’s first victory in three matches against Tursunov.

“I think he was getting frustrated with some people standing up or something,” Querrey said. “I don’t know. It didn’t bother me. On his service games, some of the big points, I was just staying 10 feet behind the baseline, I wasn’t going to miss a ball. And I think that started to get to him.”

Hours later, Vince Spadea joined Querrey in the third round, saving three match points against qualifier Denis Gremelmayr of Germany, winning, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7. It was Spadea’s second five-setter here.

Spadea has been playing this tournament since 1995, and his coach, Craig Kardon interrupted his media session after the first-round win to tell him that he had canceled their flight home.

The 33-year-old Spadea, who will play David Ferrer of Spain in the third round, was asked if he intended to become the Gordie Howe of the tennis tour.

“Who’s Gordie Howe? Is he the hockey player?” Spadea asked. “I’m going to be Who’s the Vince Spadea, of life.”

Quote of the day

Querrey on whether the man of many imitations, Djokovic, has mimicked him yet: “I haven’t seen one. I don’t think you really imitate guys if they’re not in the top 10. “

--

lisa.dillman@latimes.com