Richard Gasquet won in three sets (7-6 (10/8), 2-6, 7-5) against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, 5th player in the world, early Thursday evening in the round of 16 of the ATP 250 tournament of Stuttgart on grass. The Frenchman, who will celebrate his 37th birthday on Sunday, thus offered himself his 600th victory on the circuit.
“It’s an accomplishment for me. I’ve been on the circuit for more than twenty years, it means a lot. I’m happy with this figure, but I’ll try to earn more”, appreciated Richard Gasquet after the encounter. For a place in the last four of the tournament in southwestern Germany, Gasquet will face the German Jan-Lennard Struff (24th in the world), who eliminated the American Tommy Paul (16th) in two sets in the tie break 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7-5).
Descended to 55th place in the world in the ATP rankings at the start of the week, the former French N.1 was broken from the start during the first two rounds by Stefanos Tsitsipas. In the first, he managed to pick up the score fairly quickly (3-3) to win the set in the tie-break (10/8). In the second, he lost his service twice in a row, Tsitsipas raising his level of play to conclude without conceding a single break point (6-2).
First top-5 since May 2022
In a much tighter third set, the two players had break points to save, five for the Greek including four match points for Gasquet at 6-5. It was finally on the fifth match point that the Biterrois ended the game (7-5), on a direct fault in the forehand of the world No.5 after more than two hours of struggle (2h18).
“I will be 37 in three days. Winning against Stefanos is a big win for me. It was important to win that last game, you never know what can happen in a tie break,” added Gasquet. He won for the first time since May 2022 against a world top-5 player. At the time, he had beaten in the round of 16 the Russian Daniil Medvedev, 2nd in the world, in two sets on Swiss clay.
Facing Tsitsipas, finalist of the Australian Open at the start of the year, Gasquet won his two matches on grass, the first dating back to the quarter-final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) in June 2018.