Richard Gasquet halts Bradley Klahn in round two – US Open 2012
Seeded 13th in this event, Richard Gasquet, crushed the local qualifier, Bradley Klahn, with a breadstick at the US Open 2012 on Friday. He joggled up a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victory against the world number 489 to cruise into the third round at the USTA
Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Corona Park, United States.
The French seed needed almost two hours to triumph over Klahn in their first encounter. As a result, Gasquet edged in the FedEx ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Head 2 Head Series by 1-0 against the qualifier and progressed into the round of 32
at this final of the four Grand Slam events.
The former world number seven made a powerful entry at this major hard court event. He drew the first blood in the second game and jumped to a 3-0 lead. Gasquet swiped his remaining serves with conviction and clinched the opener with a 6-3 score line in
40 minutes.
Gasquet kept momentum rolling in the follow-up set and held his opening serve to level the scores at 1-1. He dusted away all three breakpoints he faced to keep his entire serves. The French got the breakthrough in the seventh game and bagged the set by winning
six games to three in 53 minutes.
Ranked 14th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Gasquet maintained his intensity in the third set. He reeled off three games in a row to leap to a 3-0 lead. After Klahn kept his serve in the fourth game, the seed wiped out the
last three games and pocketed the set with a breadstick in just under half hour.
All in all, the seed dominated throughout the epic encounter. He produced a slightly lower first serve share of 55 per cent as opposed to his rival’s 57 per cent but impressively marked 33 out of 42 points on it. Gasquet also struck 28 winners including
six aces and finished the match with 101 points.
Up next for Gasquet is the local wild card entrant, Steve Johnson, who bounced back to stomp over Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis in a four-set thriller to set up this meeting.
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