NOT TO BE

After a fantastic win against Janko Tipsarevic in the third round, Richard Gasquet must have entered his encounter with fifth seed Ferrer with confidence high, but it wasn’t to be for the aspiring Frenchman.

Gasquet was playing some of the best tennis of his career in the Tipsarevic match, with just 8 unforced errors all game, compared to his 33 winners. And his groundstrokes were so good that he actually won 74% of his second serve points – actually 3% higher than his win percentage on first serve. Either way, he dominated the first two sets, and his dejected Serbian opponent had virtually given up by the time the third set appeared.

With this stunning performance under his belt, you would be forgiven for thinking he could at least take a set or two off the hard-working Ferrer in his fourth round tie. Instead, he found most of the groundstrokes that would be giving Tipsarevic a problem being scrambled back by the Spaniard, who rarely gives up on anything. Gasquet even managed to up his first serve percentage, getting a very respectable 71% in, but still only winning half the points on either of his serves. In contrast, Ferrer was keeping the pressure on when serving to his opponent, winning 83% of his first serve points, and converting 7 out of 9 break points. The match finished 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 to Ferrer, and it shows just how good his battling approach is against opponents whose confidence isn’t unshakeable – which means virtually everyone below him in the rankings.

Gasquet will be pleased he caused the upset against 10^th seed Tipsarevic to get to the stage he did though, and if he can play the way he did in that match on a regular basis, he will quickly be reclaiming his spot in the top ten.