ESPN Tennis

MELBOURNE, Australia -- First it was a player from that noted tennis powerhouse, Luxembourg, humbling Andy Roddick in the first round of the 2005 U.S. Open. But Gilles Muller's 15 minutes of fame have since faded.

Sunday in an enclosed Rod Laver Arena, with the mid-afternoon temperature outside reaching 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit), it was a Greek Cypriot, former world junior champion Marcos Baghdatis, who rocketed onto the tennis landscape at the expense of the one-time U.S. Open champion. Baghdatis out-aced, out-slugged and generally outplayed No. 2 Roddick right out of the Australian Open, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Baghdatis was cheered on by a vocal group of blue-and-white-shirted supporters from Melbourne's large Greek community, many of whom aren't yet quite tennis-savvy.

"Yeah, they don't know tennis so they're starting to get known to it," said Baghdatis, who advanced to his first career Grand Slam quarterfinal. "They think it's football [soccer] so when I spoke to them I told them a bit the rules and I told them to calm down and no swearing and no stuff," he said to laughter in the interview room.

The normally voluble Roddick, a veteran at 23, was at a slight loss for words to describe his second consecutive early-round ouster at a major.

"I don't know if it's [the loss] easy just to shrug off," he said. "It's disappointing when you feel like you've put in the work. There are no unanswered questions in my eyes as far as preparation and stuff like that. So you're kind of left searching a little bit. That's an uneasy feeling."

Asked if it was another big opportunity missed, he responded, "It's always tough but the good thing about tennis is there's always next week. We're not an Olympic sport where we have to wait another four years. You try to be optimistic. It's tough. It's disappointing. But you move on."

The American men, one would think, came to Melbourne eager to show that they're no longer willing to cede any ground to the Spanish, the French and the Argentines, whose depth and success in Davis Cup play have arguably relegated the American men to a second-echelon tennis power.

Roddick was forced to play one of the most clutch matches of his career last September in Belgium -- a marathon five-set win on clay over Olivier Rochus -- simply to ensure a place for the U.S. in the 16-country Davis Cup World Group for 2006.

While some unsung American men -- particularly Amer Delic and Alex Bogomolov, Jr. -- surpassed expectations in Melbourne by advancing through three rounds of qualifying and winning their first-round matches, the same can't be said for No. 13 Robby Ginepri and No. 27 Taylor Dent.

Ginepri cratered out in the second round against unknown German qualifier Denis Gremelmayr after being up by two sets, and Dent, whose father Phil was a top-ranked Australian player, enjoyed a less-than-pleasant homecoming, losing his opening match easily to Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Add in James Blake, who lived up to his No. 20 seeding but lost a third-round rematch of his recent U.S. Open win over Spain's Tommy Robredo, and Roddick was left to once again shoulder the hopes of the American men, only to be undone by the explosive shotmaking of Baghdatis, who advances to his first major quarterfinal.

The weight of carrying a nation's hopes week-in, week-out can wear on Roddick and there are times when he bristles at questions about the state of the American men's game.

"You guys [the American media] are always concerned, aren't you?" Roddick answered when asked for his views on the performance of the American men in Melbourne. "I mean if we're playing well at the moment, then it's 'Who's next?' If we're not playing well at the time, it's 'Who's now?' You guys are always bitching about something.

"We're probably really, really disappointed right now. But I don't know if I'd overreact. That being said, it was a bad tournament. I think we'll rebound. I think you'll see Robby and James and all those guys have career years this year.

"Robby is right on the door of the Top-10. I think we still have some talent out there. It's a long year. So I wouldn't pass judgment on one event."

Looking ahead to the second week of men's play at Melbourne Park, all indications are that top-seeded Roger Federer is marching inexorably toward his seventh major title.

Federer has an advantageous draw and the aura that comes with having won 160 of his past 170 matches, a 94 percent clip. He faces opposition in the upper half of the draw from his next opponent, unseeded Tommy Haas of Germany, and then from the winner of the match between Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia.

In the bottom half, No. 4 David Nalbandian of Argentina is the highest seed remaining, but he faces a tricky quarterfinal date with crafty French veteran Fabrice Santoro, who at 33 has advanced to the last eight of a Grand Slam for the first time. Look for the Ljubicic-Johansson winner to square off with the Argentine for a spot in the finals versus Federer. And look for Federer to make relatively quick work of whichever player has the dubious distinction of facing him in the final.

Perhaps it's best left to Roddick to sum up the growing depth and parity in the contemporary men's game. The days are long gone when any American player, even Roddick himself, comes onto the court with the type of helpful aura that Federer uses to such great advantage.

"I think you guys underestimate a lot of players. I mean if you watched the match today, the guy [Baghdatis] can play tennis. Just 'cause his ranking is not there yet doesn't mean the guy doesn't deserve respect.

"I told you guys five days ago that there's no such thing as an open draw [anymore]. There's a lot of good players out there. There's one guy [Federer] who has set himself apart, and the rest of men's tennis is very deep, where anybody can beat anybody on a given day."

Whit Sheppard is a Paris-based sportswriter who is covering the Australian Open for ESPN.com. He can be e-mailed at lobsandvolleys@yahoo.com