Federer favored, but rival is threat

Roger Federer beat Marcos Baghdatis in their three previous meetings.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Roger Federer clearly didn't want to empathize with opponent Marcos Baghdatis ahead of today's Australian Open final.
The top-ranked Federer was to be going for his seventh Grand Slam title, facing a player who began the tournament ranked 54th in the world and was a 500-to-1 shot to win the season's first major.
Asked after his emphatic semifinal win over Nicolas Kiefer if he could remember being nervous before his first major final, Federer said the circumstances were entirely different.
He'd spent a lot of time, he said, waiting for his chance -- spending a period ranked just outside the top 100 and another just outside the top 10.
Quick stardom
Baghdatis, on the other hand, has been an overnight sensation.
"I went into my first Grand Slam final being sort of a favorite against [Mark] Philippoussis, I thought," Federer said. "So I guess that is already different circumstances -- he's not going to be the favorite."
Not only won't Baghdatis be the favorite, but he's a big underdog against a player who has won all six Grand Slam singles finals he's contested -- starting with a straight-sets victory over Philippoussis at Wimbledon in 2003.
Baghdatis, a 20-year-old Cypriot who was junior world champion and Australian Open junior champion in 2003, has lost all three of his previous matches against Federer.
Though he reached the final by defeating three seeded players -- No. 2 Andy Roddick, No. 7 Ivan Ljubicic and No. 4 David Nalbandian -- history isn't on Baghdatis' side. In six previous Grand Slam men's finals involving the top-seeded player and an unseeded player, the top-seeded guy has won every time.
Four losses last year
Federer lost only four matches last year. Until his defeat by Nalbandian at the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, where he was hobbled by an ankle injury, the Swiss star hadn't lost in 24 straight finals.
He won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last season, and went into the Australian Open final with a 51-match winning streak on hard courts -- though he did have to survive a couple of tough five-set matches over Tommy Haas and fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko to reach the Australian Open semifinals.
Federer is on an 11-match winning streak, including a straight-sets win over Baghdatis at Doha earlier this month.
"In two weeks, he's improved incredibly," Federer said of Baghdatis. "We're all surprised he got this far, but he beat quality players and totally deserves to be in the final.
"He's relaxed enough not to get too worried about all this stuff, it seems. I have to expect him to play a good match."
Embraced by fans
Baghdatis has been embraced by fans in Melbourne, a southern Australian city with a large Greek population. But Federer also is a popular figure in Australia, in part because his coach, Tony Roche, is an Aussie.
A win by Federer would put him halfway to Pete Sampras' record 14 Grand Slam singles titles, but he said such marks are secondary.
"[I] think about the next match, not what I still have to achieve to be a legend or a great," he said. "I have a long way to go -- I know that."
The match, which started at 3:30 a.m. EST, was not completed in time for today's edition.
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