Richard Gasquet rallies past Alexandr Dolgopolov into second round – Cincinnati Open 2011
World number 13, Richard Gasquet of France had a brilliant start in the opening round of Western and Southern Financial Group Masters, defeating the 22nd ranked Ukrainian competitor, Alexandr Dolgopolov, on Monday afternoon.
The contest was staged at the outdoor hard courts of the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, near Cincinnati, United States, with the Frenchman exhibiting his brilliant form to register a straight sets victory at 6-1, 7-6(4).
Gasquet took one hour and eleven minutes of play to dispose of the unseeded opponent and booked a berth in the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters Series event.
The contest appeared fairly one-sided, with Gasquet registering his 30th victory of the running ATP season and becoming first seeded player of the tournament to advance to the second round without a bye. He had a ballistic
start in the opening set of the match and absolutely blew away Dolgopolov to get early advantage over him. The Ukrainian made a strong comeback in the following set to drag the game into a tie breaker round but eventually dropped the set to finish the contest
on the losing side in the end.
“I did a pretty good tiebreak,” Gasquet said after bagging victory against Dolgopolov. “There was a lot of tension, but I knew it was important because, in the third set, you never know what can happen, so I’m happy.”
The Frenchman’s strong serve game greatly assisted him to cruise to victory, as he cracked in half a dozen of aces and reeled off 34 out of 41 first serve points en route to victory. Gasquet had five chances in the entire matchup
to break his opponent’s serve and he cashed in just two of them in the opening set to seal victory. He took the opening set with the utmost ease, nailing two successive break points to close the opener at 6-1. Dolgopolov posed some serious resistance in the
second set but finally succumbed to the French’s belligerence in the tie breaker round, letting him conclude victory at 7-6(4).
It was the second victory which Gasquet recorded against the Ukrainian in singles encounter, previously defeating him in Nice, France, 6-0, 2-6, 6-3, to make it into the quarter-finals of the tournament. He now leads the head-to-head
series against Dolgopolov by 2-0 and is slated to meet either Xavier Malisse of Belgium or Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the second round of Cincinnati Masters.
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