Richard Gasquet has set up a second round clash with Rafael Nadal as the Frenchman beat John-Patrick Smith 6-4 6-4 as another Frenchman Gael Monfils withdraws from Cincinnati.
The world number 29 played a very scrappy match with the Australian qualifier as six breaks of serve occurred in the match. Gasquet, who lost a tough match to eventual champion Alexander Zverev last week, broke four times as he dictated his lower ranked opponent using his favourite one handed backhand.
Despite a low first serve percentage, he still won comfortably as the World number 218 hit too many unforced errors to hand the Frenchman the match. The contest lasted 1 hour and 24 minutes which saw Gasquet advance to the second round. He will now meet Rafael Nadal, who will become the World number one next week. Gasquet has never beaten the Spaniard in their 14 previous meetings.
However it’s not good news for another Frenchman as Gael Monfils has become the third player to withdraw from Cincinnati as he has suffered Illness. He now joins Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori on the sidelines and will hope to recover for the US Open in a couple of weeks time. Ramkumar Ramanathan will take his place in the draw and will play Christopher Eubanks at 8:30 pm tonight local time.
In other results big serving Ivo Karlovic advanced to the second round of the Western and Southern Open after a 6-3 3-6 7-5 victory over Jiri Vesely. The big Croatian served 29 aces as he broke twice to grab a tight match on Court four. The win incredibly was only Karlovic’s 13th win of the season. The Croatian will play eight seed Jo-Wilfred Tsonga next.
In the battle of the Americans, Tommy Paul once again impressed as he secured a tough 6-4 7-6(4) win over Donald Young. Young will rued missed chances as he only took 1 of 12 break point opportunities as he missed an opportunity of a good draw. Paul will now play 14th seed John Isner in the second round.
Here are your other results so far:
Fabio Fognini def Daniil Medvedev 7-6(5) 6-4 – The Italian continues his good form in 2017 to set up a meeting with Dominic Thiem.
Feliciano Lopez def Hyeon Chung 7-6(5) 6-1 – The Spanish doubles specialist gets revenge on Chung from last week to set up a meeting with Grigor Dimitrov.
Mitchell Krueger def Benoit Paire 6-2 6-1 – The American thrashes an out of sorts Paire to face the winner of Juan Martin Del Potro or Tomas Berdych.
