Richard Gasquet recovers to beat Grigor Dimitrov in the second round – Thailand Open 2012
Second seed, Richard Gasquet of France, bounced back after going down in the first set to outlast the world number 56, Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the Thailand Open in Bangkok. The Frenchman
needed two hours and 15 minutes to register this tough win over Dimitrov.
Gasquet and Dimitrov put on a superb display of serve in the first set, as they did not drop their serve in the first 11 games and took the score to 6-5 in favour of the latter. The French contender failed to hold at that moment
and threw it away 5-7.
Dimitrov was almost unstoppable on his deliveries, as he bombarded nine aces and 82 percent of the first serves in the opening set. On the other hand, Gasquet banged in three aces and 69 percent of the first deliveries, securing
14 of the 22 points on them. He was near error free on the second serves, as he allowed the Bulgarian to win only one point on them, capturing nine of the 10.
Dimitrov got into a winning position, nailing a break in the fourth game of the second set and consolidating on it to go up 4-1. The Bulgarian sustained his advantage till 5-3 but then Gasquet made a stunning comeback, as he grabbed
four in a row to capture it 7-5.
The right-hander gave a pretty nominal performance on his serves, as he did not hit even a single ace and committed one double fault. The 26-year-old survived six aces from his opponent, who did not make any double fault. The French
star was the better player at crucial moments, as he put away three of the four break threats he came across and availed two of the five he created in the second set.
In the decider, both players held their serves in the first half and levelled the score at 3-3. Gasquet managed to seal a breakthrough at that moment and made the most of it to triumph 6-4.
The Frenchman will take on the eighth seeded Australian player, Bernard Tomic, in the quarter-finals.
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