Richard Gasquet sweeps in to the final 16 after defeating Thomaz Bellucci – French Open 2011
World number 16, Richard Gasquet of France continued to impress everyone with his brilliant form, as he outplayed the 23rd seed Brazilian, Thomaz Bellucci in the third round of Roland Garros in Paris, France. In the
Friday’s matchup, the hard-hitting Frenchman registered a comprehensively victory over the in-form Bellucci at 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, taking two hours and forty four minutes of play to qualify for the fourth round of the second Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Gasquet is in sublime form in the running ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) season and has already won 20 matches this year. His ignited his French Open campaign with securing assertive victories over Radek Stepanek and
Marcel Granollers in his opening round matches en route to the fourth round of the tournament.
World number 25, Bellucci, is the other rising star of 2011 and has performed brilliantly to achieve memorable victories over world class players. The Brazilian took down world number six, Tomas Berdych and fourth ranked Andy Murray
in Madrid Open but failed to exhibit similar performance in the third round battle against Gasquet. He dropped the opening two sets very early to get on the back foot in the contest and never recovered from the deficit.
Bellucci’s sluggish start gave the Frenchman the required momentum in the game and he nabbed the first two sets to take a substantial lead of 2-0 in the competition. The Brazilian regrouped later to clinch the third set but couldn’t
sustain his momentum, eventually falling apart in the fourth set to end his voyage in the French Open.
Gasquet stung six out of 16 break points to his opponent’s serve and suffered just three from Bellucci in return. He secured 34 winners in the game, along with 10 thudding aces to uproot Bellucci from the contest and earn a spot
in the final 16 qualifiers of the tournament.
It only took 82 minutes for the French to wrap up the opening two sets 6-2, 6-3, and get the upper hand in the contest. Bellucci finally bagged the third set, as Gasquet spilled out multiple errors, but the French got his momentum
back in the very next set to conclude victory at 6-3.
Gasquet will take on the winner of the contest between the world number two, Novak Djokovic of Serbia and the Argentine, Juan Martin Del Potro, in the fourth round of Roland Garros on Sunday.
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