This Flag-Waver Adds to the Games’ Flavor

ATHENS —  Just when you’ve become resigned to an Olympics defined by underachieving basketball players and doped-up track stars, you run across Marcos Baghdatis, the pride of Cyprus.

At 19, he is much too young to carry the hopes of a nation, but that’s what he was doing on Court 3 of the Athens Tennis Complex.

It was a quiet Tuesday morning -- except at Court 3, where flags were waving and staccato chants were turning heads. If there hadn’t been nets and rackets, and no hooligans in sight, you would have thought this was a soccer match.

Baghdatis, long brown hair tied back, gray T-shirt soaked in sweat, was trying to win the tennis match of his young life. Had the event organizers anticipated this, they might have put this match on the Stadium Court. As it was, every seat was taken, every corner packed with standees. It certainly wasn’t because of Baghdatis’ tennis skills, or name identification. Baghdatis is No. 228 in the world and had made his best showing in a major event -- before his 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-5 first-round win here over Gregory Carraz of France -- by winning three qualifying matches in his failed attempt to get into the 2003 French Open. Nor was his opponent, German veteran Nicolas Kiefer, responsible for the hubbub. Kiefer is No. 18, but he’s a bland journeyman who inspires little following away from the River Rhine.

No, this scene was pure Olympic nationalism.

Cyprus is an island country, 500 miles to the southeast of Athens, with a population of about 850,000. That population is divided into Greeks and Turks, with the Greeks about 700,000 of the total population. It has been divided since Turkey invaded in 1974 and occupied about 37% of the land, mostly in the north. There are 35,000 Turkish troops on Cyprus, a number that hasn’t varied much since the ’74 invasion.

On the world’s athletic stage, Cyprus is a flyspeck. There are 18 other Cypriot athletes here -- probably more than normal because of the proximity. Only one Cypriot ever won an Olympic medal, in shooting in 1896. Greece claimed him, though, and he is listed as a Greek in record books.

“In one Olympics,” Cypriot journalist Gregoris Savvas recalled, “we had the fastest white guy in the 200 meters.”

That, of course, wasn’t good enough for a medal. Nor was young Baghdatis, who kept Kiefer out on the court for 2 hours 17 minutes before finally losing, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

But as Baghdatis said afterward, “Losing was the only negative.”

The scene was one for Bud Greenspan to film. Greek Cypriots had hung blue-and-white Greek flags over the courtside railings, right next to the red, black and gold of Germany. Cypriot chants were answered by German chants. When Baghdatis won a point, he shouted the name of his favorite soccer team, Apollon, from the Apollon Limassol FC of Cyprus. Soon, Kiefer -- in the middle of a fight he hadn’t anticipated -- was answering with fist pumps.

When Baghdatis hit his last weary backhand wide on match point, the crowd rose in salute of both players. Baghdatis, not having been in a situation anything like this before, had to be teased out of his chair along the sidelines to acknowledge the sustained applause. Finally, just like the big guys, he tossed his sweatbands into the crowd. Afterward, he said that he was disappointed but also “proud of myself.”

“Maybe God didn’t want me to beat a player like that,” he said. “Maybe it is time now for me to go back and work harder and get my feet back on the ground.”

He said he wanted to thank everybody he could think of, starting with his “tennis-crazy family” and the Cyprus Tennis Federation that had helped him get a wild-card invitation into the event. And, of course, the fans who had cheered for him.

He said the chant they used during the match translated to, “You Can Do It! You Can Do It!” And he said that, even near the end, when his legs were tired and shaky, he would never have given anything less than his all.

Had Larry Brown been there, he could have asked Baghdatis whether he played basketball.