Florian Mayer rallies past Richard Gasquet into the quarters – Wimbledon Championships 2012
Germany’s Florian Mayer booked his place in the quarter-final at the All England Club for the second time in his career, as he beat the world number 19, Richard Gasquet of France, in four sets 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in the round of
16 at the Wimbledon Championships on Tuesday. The evenly contested match lasted for an hour and 52 minutes.
The German had reached the last-eight stage of the Wimbledon Championships for the first time in 2004, when he lost to French player, Sebastien Grosjean.
Mayer struck in the opening game of the contest and held his subsequent serve to gain a 2-0 lead. The German did not provide any opportunity to his opponent to come back, breaking him again in the ninth to grab it 6-3.
Ranked 29th in the world, Mayer thrashed the Frenchman in the second set, as he allowed him to claim only one game until the end, snatching a couple of breaks and capitalising on them to win 6-1.
Mayer and Gasquet made a stable start to the third set, as they held their serve in the first five games to take the score to 3-2 in the latter’s favour. The Frenchman claimed a breakthrough in the sixth and capitalised on it to
win 6-3.
In the fourth set, both players made a similar start but this time the score was taken to 3-2 in Mayer’s favour. The German did not lose any game after that, breaking Gasquet in the sixth and eighth to capture it 6-2.
Mayer bombarded 14 aces at the Frenchman and clinched 40 of the 49 first delivery points in the entire match. He played attacking round strokes, hitting amazingly 60 winners and committing just 13 unforced errors.
Giving an interview at the end of the match, a jubilant Mayer said, “Today, I played perfect match. I really played well. [For the] first time in this tournament, I felt no pressure going on the court. I played a guy Top 15 in
the world. He was the favourite. I played with less pressure than the matches before and my performance was much better than the last two rounds.”
The German added, “It's an unbelievable feeling for me right now. Eight years ago I was here in quarter [finals], and now eight years later [here I am] again. So it's a wonderful dream for me.”
Mayer will lock horns with the defending champion, Novak Djokovic, in the quarter-finals.
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