Article

  • Bucharest - Moya and Gasquet battle in blockbuster semi

    9/13/08 4:18 AM | Cheryl Murray
    - Two stars of the tour, Richard Gasquet and Carlos Moya, will fight for a spot in Sunday’s final.

    Surprisingly, Carlos Moya of Spain holds a 2-0 career edge over Frenchman Richard Gasquet. They played as recently as last year in Sydney. Moya won that encounter in three sets. Both men were in good form in their quarterfinal matches on Friday. If it holds through on Saturday, the match has the potential to be a real barn burner.

    The surface will benefit Moya. Clay is clearly Gasquet’s worst surface. His 2008 clay season was so disappointing that he made the decision to skip the French Open altogether rather than deal with the immense pressure of possibly disappointing his hometown crowd. He did eventually make the final in Stuttgart (the clay tournament held after Wimbledon) where he lost to Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro.

    Carlos Moya is considered a veteran of the tour, but he was once the number one player in the world and he won Roland Garros in 1998. Those days are long past for Moya, but he is still a threat on the dirt. Moya has had an up and down season. He started off the season with good results, but flagged after the South American clay court swing. He is still capable of going deep at tournaments, however. Just weeks ago, he defeated Nikolay Davydenko in Cincinnati, where he progressed all the way to quarterfinals.

    This match could go either way, but it should be a competitive three setter.

Tell a friend »

Comments


Write comment

You have to be logged in to comment. If you do not have an account, click here to register. It only takes a minute and you'll be redirected back to this page.
Username:

Password: