GASQUET THROUGH

Richard Gasquet has defeated Jerzy Janowicz of Poland in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open. Gasquet won the match in the straight sets by 6-1, 6-4.

In the next round, Gasquet will lock horns with Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic for securing a berth in the final 8.

This was a blistering performance by Gasquet. He took just a little more than 1 hour to knock Janowicz out of the tournament.

This was Gasquet’s 20^th match in the ongoing season and he has won 17 out of them. He has already won a couple of titles since the start of the season and he is looking good for the third one here.

After the match, Gasquet said, “The last couple of months have been great for me. I did some hard work during the off season and that’s really helping me now.”

When asked about his opponent, Gasquet said, “I played against him for the first time and I think he is a good player. He played some superb shots in the second set. He is young and his game will develop in the future. He has got a lot of talent; that’s for sure.”

In the first set, Gasquet raced to a lead of 5-0 with breakthroughs in the 2^nd and the 4^th game. Janowicz held his serve in the 6^th game to bring down the lead to 1-5.

The Polish youngster needed much more than a serve hold to repair the damage which was done in the first 5 games. He had to break Gasquet’s serve at least two times to make the set exciting again. That didn’t happen and Gasquet won the set with a serve hold in the 7^th game.

In the second set, Gasquet got only one breakthrough i.e. in the 7^th game. That was enough for him. He held his entire serve and grabbed the second set by 6-4 to earn a place in the 4^th round.