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4/20/10 12:41 AM | Ricky Dimon
Richard Gasquet beats Igor Andreev in straight sets on Monday in Barcelona. Gasquet is joined in the second round by Thomaz Bellucci, who dismissed Jarkko Nieminen.
Richard Gasquet booked a spot in the second round of the Barcelona Open BancSabadell on Monday with a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over Jarkko Nieminen. Gasquet needed one hour and 42 minutes to set up a meeting with Monte-Carlo runner-up Fernando Verdasco.
A back-and-forth opening set saw Gasquet capitalize on the first break point of the match, giving him a 3-1 advantage. The Frenchman, however, promptly gave back two consecutive breaks to fall behind 4-3. Soon it was Andreev's turn to squander a lead and he quickly allowed his opponent to get back on level terms at 4-4. Finally, a rare streak of four straight service holds took the proceedings to a tiebreaker.
In keeping with the theme of the first set, neither player won a point on serve until Gasquet held for 3-2 in the 'breaker. Andreev did not win a single service point until he evened the score at 5-5. The Russian surrendered another mini-break on the very next point and Gasquet closed out the bizarre set with a 7-5 victory in the decider.
Set two was slightly more straightforward, as the two competitors exchanged one break each en route to a 5-4 Gasquet lead. With a chance to serve out the match, the world No. 78 shouldered the pressure and finished it off thanks to a routine hold.
No. 13 seed Thomaz Bellucci also advanced in straight sets, dispatching Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 27 minutes. Although Nieminen served at no less than 70 percent in each set, Bellucci earned two breaks in both the first and second for victory.
The 33rd-raked Brazilian struck two aces and did not double-fault on his way to a second-round encounter with either Andreas Beck or Victor Hanescu.
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Allez, Richard! I wasn't sure he'd get past Andreev.
mara002 , 4/20/10 7:44 PM