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Denis Istomin and Marcos Baghdatis started their rivalry with 2 interesting matches in Moscow and at the Australian Open back in 2010 and 2014, and Uzbek won their 3rd meeting in Nottingham 2015, en route to his first ATP title.
Marcos was forced to retire in that one and we saw exactly the same thing today, Cypriot could spend only 23 minutes on the court, retiring in the 6th game to give his rival the second ATP crown. Interestingly, there were no breaks of serve or deuces in these 5 games but Baghdatis had back problems and he couldn't continue a match, missing a chance to grab the first ATP crown since Sydney 2010! He served at only 25% and it was clear that something bothers him, falling down to the ground after the 4th point of that 6th game in tears (Istomin earned 2 break points), aware that he will not be able to continue the match.
Marcos could barely stand during the trophy ceremony and this was the first ATP final that ended with a retirement after Auckland 2016 when Jack Sock was unable to finish the match against Roberto Bautista Agut. This was by far the best result of the season for the 31-year-old Uzbek, who opened the season with that stunning win over Novak Djokovic in Melbourne but unable to continue in that style in the rest of the season, at least before Chengdu. Final result:
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