Help
2/25/11 12:26 AM | Ricky Dimon
Richard Gasquet wins an all-French affair against Gilles Simon on Thursday in Dubai. Gasquet advances to the semifinals along with Tomas Berdych.
Richard Gasquet improved to 5-0 lifetime against Gilles Simon with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday night. Gasquet fought off two break points at 5-4 in the final set and advanced after two hours and four minutes of play.
The 28th-ranked Frenchman lost a back-and-forth first set when he dropped serve at 5-6, but he made a drastic turnaround in the second. Gasquet started firing groundstrokes from all angles and directions--especially off the backhand side--whereas Simon's level suffered a substantial drop. A routine hold for Gasquet at 5-2 forced a decisive third frame of play.
With momentum in hand, Gasquet struck for an early break in set three. Simon stayed mentally into it and picked up his game, but he could not quite get back on serve. The 33rd-ranked Frenchman built a 15-40 lead at 4-5, but Gasquet erased it with two huge first serves. Two points later, it was all over.
A blockbuster semifinal lineup is rounded out by Tomas Berdych, who dismissed Philipp Petzschner 7-5, 6-4. Berdych struck six aces to prevail after one hour and 47 minutes of play.
"These kind of matches are more mentally tough than physically," said the seventh-seeded Czech, who withstood 11 aces off the Petzschner racket. "Today it wasn't really about the nice game, great shots, and especially good rhythm and like feeling great on court. But if you can win the match when you need to fight really from first point until the last one and you don't feel that good on court, then the victory is even more special for me."
Berdych will meet Novak Djokovic on Friday, while Gasquet will go up against Roger Federer.
Find the latest tennis odds at Unibet.com
Tell a friend »
Scan QR code to access Unibet mobile.
Bet on Sports wherever you are and whenever you like, with Unibet's quick and simple mobile client you can place bets, check results and see live odds.
For more info about QR codes & scanners click here.
Contact us
/ About us
/ Cookies
/ Recommended links
/ Advertise
/ Sitemap
Tennistalk v1.5.0
Disclaimer © 2001-2012, Moneytainment Media Ltd - All rights reserved
