Wimbledon 2012: Cinderella Man Brian Baker is making his own fairytale ending What he endured in his early twenties as the one-time wonder kid, once the second best junior in the world, who five times had to go under the surgeon's scalpel and wondered if he would ever swing a racket at full power again because of an elbow injury, would have destroyed the spirit of lesser men. Most would have quit in the face of seemingly annual operations to cure a hernia, both hips and the elbow woes. Yet Baker simply battled on, still nursing all his former ambitions while holding down a college course, acting as a university tennis coach in Nashville and playing club games last summer in the Middle Tennessee Tennis League. Actually, all the trials and tribulations of his career must have felt like the perfect training to cope with all the tantrums and histrionics of eccentric Frenchman Benoit Paire in their third round clash on Court No 3 at Wimbledon on Saturday. Paire chucked his tennis rackets around, smashed his water bottle, dropped his towel disdainfully so that a ball boy had to pick it up and stomped around swearing like a legionnaire. "Balotelli, welcome to Wimbledon," sighed one observer. But it all washed over Baker, who while not possessing Paire's power, outplayed his opponent with his crisp groundstrokes to win 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in just over two hours. Rude Frenchmen do not intrude on fairytales. "It is difficult to play a guy like that," mused Baker. But it's easier for me to handle the ups and downs now. Near the end of his match as he closed in for the kill, Baker admitted his own nerves began to become a bit frayed in the gusty conditions and that he missed a few shots that he would have made in his sleep on the Challenger tour. Yet he looked serene enough beneath his baseball cap while Paire kept up his grand "Le Sulk" act. A tantalising opportunity to make a Grand Slam quarter-final now looms with Philipp Kohlschreiber awaiting Baker in the fourth round. "I'm sure I'll probably be the underdog again (against a man ranked 96 places higher), which is fine for me," he smiled. I'm kind of happy being the hunter. Pa and Ma Baker and his girlfriend are kind of happy too, even if they have all had to alter their travel plans to stay here for the continuation of his adventures. I think they had to change plans twice. They weren't that confident," he smiled. He could think back to his last attempt to make it to Wimbledon in 2005 when he had to limp out of a junior game with injury against another likely lad by the name of Novak Djokovic. The kid from Serbia did all right for himself but Baker was incredibly unlucky. What he never, ever lost though was self-belief. When he received his last-minute wild card from the USTA to compete in that minor tournament last July, he was on a golf course and had to drive hundreds of miles the next day to get to Pittsburgh in time. "I signed up for the qualifying, started the next day, won three qually matches and then the five main draw matches without losing a set," he recalled. I've always been confident in my game. I always knew I was a good player. It was just whether the body would co-operate and whether I could stay more than even six, eight, 12 months healthy and able to play. I've had some lumps down the road but I'm just so happy that I'm now finally finding my stride. To be honest, it's kind of crazy what's going on. But amid Wimbledon's best fairytale, the fabulous Baker boy is remaining the model of calm.