Success 2012: Marcos Baghdatis, professional tennis player. Semifinalist at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships and reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 8 in August 2006

Marcos Baghdatis is a Cypriot professional tennis player^. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships and reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 8 in August 2006.
Marcos Baghdatis is the son of a Lebanese father, Christos, who migrated to Cyprus and a Cypriot mother.
Baghdatis began playing tennis at age five with his father and brothers. He enjoys playing and watching football and is a supporter of Apollon Limassol in Cyprus. He trained at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Paris on an Olympic Solidarity Youth Development Programme Scholarship since the age of 13 and learned to speak French.
On January 28, 2006, Baghdatis received an exemption from the otherwise mandatory Cypriot national service so that he could concentrate instead on playing tennis.
He received the 2005 Cyprus Male Athlete of the Year award.
On July 14, 2012 Baghdatis married former Croatian tennis player Karolina Šprem. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter called Zahara, on 20 October 2012.