Richard Gasquet rallies past Mardy Fish into the last four – Rogers Cup 2012
Seeded 14th in the draw, Richard Gasquet of France bounced back from a deficit of one set to upset the 11th seed, Mardy Fish, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of Rogers Cup in Toronto on Friday. The Frenchman
took two hours and seven minutes to complete this win over his American rival.
Gasquet and Fish traded two breaks of serve in the opening 10 games to square off the score at 5-5. The American contender grabbed a breakthrough in the 11th and made the most of it to win 7-5.
After going down in a tough first set, Gasquet got complete control on the proceedings from the start of second one. The French player dropped only a single game till the end, snatching two breaks of serve and capitalising on them
to capture it 6-1.
Gasquet hit a blow to the American contender in the very first game of the decider and won his next serve to build a 2-0 advantage. The French contestant allowed Fish to open his account in the third but then grabbed three more
in a row to race to a 5-1 lead. Serving for the match in the eighth game, Gasquet did not drop any point and closed it 6-2.
This was second match of the day for both players, as rain had washed play on Thursday and they had to cover up the loss of time on Friday. Gasquet stunned the fourth seed, Tomas Berdych, and Fish pulled off a tough win against
Argentina’s Juan Monaco in the third round.
Gasquet said during the post match press conference, “For sure it's tough, but I think he played one more hour than me in the morning with Monaco so it made a little bit of a difference, I think. I tried to fight a lot and then
I defended well and I played a good match. But for sure to play two matches in a day, it's very difficult."
The French star will now lock horns with the eighth seed, John Isner of USA, in the semis. Isner ousted the home favourite, Milos Raonic, in the quarter-finals.
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