Gasquet Books Place In 30th Final

Richard Gasquet reached his 30th tour-level final, beating Australia’s Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-2 on Saturday at the Libema Open.

The second seed converted five of seven break points en route to a one-hour, 48-minute victory to reach his second final of the season. In February, Gasquet reached his sixth consecutive Open Sud de France final, losing in straight sets to Lucas Pouille.

Gasquet came within two points of victory at 6/6 in the second-set tie-break, but Tomic held his nerve to force a decider. The World No. 30, not to be disheartened, secured an early break of serve to lead 2-0 before charging to victory. The World No. 30 improves to 8-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Tomic, who was contesting his first tour-level semi-final since the 2016 Fever-Tree Championships. Gasquet will face countryman Jeremy Chardy in Sunday’s final.

Chardy reached his first tour-level final in nine years, beating Australia’s Matthew Ebden 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 32 minutes.

The 31-year-old, who last reached a championship match at the 2009 MercedesCup (d. Hanescu), hit 14 aces and saved both break points he faced. The Frenchman had lost his past seven tour-level semi-finals dating back to his 2009 triumph in Stuttgart. Chardy maintains his perfect FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Ebden, improving to 4-0.

After falling to his lowest ATP Ranking (No. 100) since 2 January 2012 on 5 March this year, Chardy has enjoyed an impressive resurgence. The World No. 72 reached the Round of 16 at the first two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events of the year, in Indian Wells and Miami, and has since reached the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open semi-finals. Chardy also won last week’s Surbiton Trophy on the ATP Challenger Tour.

Did You Know?
Richard Gasquet won his first two ATP World Tour titles on grass in Nottingham (2005-2006). But, since those back-to-back triumphs, the Frenchman has not won another title on the surface.