Richard Gasquet outshines Nikolay Davydenko to reach the quarters – Open Sud de France 2012
Fourth seed home favourite, Richard Gasquet, registered a convincing straight sets victory over the former world number three, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, in the second round of the Open Sud de France on Tuesday. The world number
16 took one hour and 26 minutes of play to conclude his fifth victory of the running season, settling the final scores at 6-3, 6-4, to march into the quarter-final round of the tournament.
Being played on the indoor hard courts of Arena Montpellier, France, the local crowd witnessed some breath-taking game play between the two former top-tenners. The 30-year-old Russian veteran laboured extremely hard to show his
vintage class in the contest but Gasquet was too agile for him throughout the contest. The crafty Frenchman displayed pin-point hitting to take the better of Davydenko in every segment of the game.
Delivering 66 per cent of his serve on target, the number fourth seed amazingly pocketed 31 out of 37 first serve points to rally past his opponent. Ten thudding aces and two out of five break point conversions from the home favourite
made the vital difference in the contest. Davydenko utterly failed to craft a single break point in the entire matchup, eventually succumbing in the second set to finish his voyage at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event in Montpellier.
A steady start in the opening set was seen, with both men holding their serves to drag the scores to 4-3 in the favour of the French. Davydenko fought three deuces and saved one break point in the sixth game to eventually hold
his serve. However, the Russian was outclassed by Gasquet in the eighth game; the fourth seed belted some cracking winners down the line to register his first break point of the match at 15-40 and comprehensively served out of the opener at 6-3.
Gasquet continue his momentum in the next set as well and registered a crucial break of serve in the fifth game to lead 3-2. The Frenchman held his lead till the conclusion of the set and got into a 3-1 lead in the head-to-head
combats against the 52nd ranked Russian.
Up next for Gasquet in the quarter-finals is the seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber. The German contender registered an easy victory over Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 6-4, 7-5, in the second round of the Open Sud de France on Wednesday.
Gasquet and Kohlschreiber will go one-on-one for a semi-final spot on Thursday.
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