GASQUET LOSES OUT

Richard Gasquet has been defeated by Fabio Fognini of Italy in the quarter final round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Fognini won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(0), 6-2.

This was the first time that Fognini defeated Gasquet. These two players had met a couple of times before this match and in both those matches, Gasquet was the winner. But, the Frenchman couldn’t continue his winning streak again Fognini yesterday.

In the post match interview, Gasquet said, “The credit must go to Fabio. He was fabulous and he kept pressure on me right through.”

“It obviously doesn’t feel good. I wanted to go all the way, but, unfortunately, today was not my day.”

In the opening set, Fognini broke Gasquet’s serve in the very first game of the match, but, he was broken back immediately and the scores got levelled at 1-1.

Fognini got another breakthrough in the third game and this time, he consolidated that with a serve hold in the 4^th game.

However, the Italian player again lost the advantage as he dropped his serve for the second time in the set in the 6^th game and Gasquet succeeded in equalizing the scores again.

The next 6 games went with the serve which made sure that the set would be decided in the tie breaker.

In the tie breaker, Gasquet committed a whole lot of mistakes and allowed his Italian opponent to take the set beyond him. The Frenchman didn’t manage to win even one point in the tie breaker.

In the second set, both the players held their serve in the first 5 games and Gasquet was trailed by 2-3 when the 5^th game finished.

Fognini didn’t let Gasquet win any more games in the second set after that. With a couple of successive breakthroughs, he won the last 3 games on the trot and moved into the semis.