Richard Gasquet downs Gilles Simon to capture title – Thailand Open 2012
French number two, Richard Gasquet, grabbed seventh ATP World Tour title of his career by beating his countryman, Gilles Simon, in Thailand Open final in Bangkok on Sunday.
The second seed was unstoppable throughout the contest, allowing Simon to claim just three games and closing the match 6-2, 6-1 in just an hour and eight minutes.
This was Gasquet’s first tour level title since winning Open de Nice Côte d’Azur in 2010. The French star clinched his second crown in Asia, as he won in Mumbai in 2007.
Coming back to the Thailand Open final, Gasquet made a slow start, losing his opening serve to trail 0-1. However, the Frenchman broke back immediately to even out the proceedings at 1-1. The subsequent two games went with serve,
taking the score to 2-2. Gasquet completely dominated the contest later on, as he grabbed four in a row to seal it 6-2.
The 26-year-old neither hit an ace nor committed any double fault in the first set, keeping his first serve percentage at 56 and bagging eight of the 10 points on them. The 6ft 1in tall inflicted most of the damage on Simon with
the help of fiery second returns, as he clinched six of the seven points.
Gasquet performed at his best in the second set, with Simon failing to find out any answer to his compatriot’s flawless play. The Neuchatel, Switzerland resident dropped only one game till the end, breaking Simon a couple of times
and holding all of his own serves to clinch it 6-1.
The Frenchman was happy on winning the title, as he said, "I played against a French player who is also my friend so of course it a little bit strange but for me it's a title and I've had some tough matches this week so I’m very
happy to win."
He added, "The people here are very nice, the crowd was very nice. The night I played against [Grigor] Dimitrov it was late, but the people stayed and cheered for me so it's more reason for me to come back next year and defend
my title."
Simon, who stunned the top seed, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, in the semi-finals was a bit disappointed after this tough loss.
The 27-year-old stated, "I was playing some of the best tennis I ever played yesterday and today I just couldn't play at all.”
Gasquet earned 250 Ranking points and $99,645 in prize money by capturing the Thailand Open title.
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