Gasquet Books Showdown With Nadal In Cincy

Richard Gasquet will take on incoming World No.1 Rafael Nadal in the Western & Southern Open second round after a routine opening to his Cincinnati campaign on Monday. The Frenchman took down Australian qualifier John-Patrick Smith 6-4, 6-4.

Gasquet is coming off a narrow three-set loss to eventual Coupe Rogers champion Alexander Zverev last week, a match in which he held three match points. He will be looking for his first win in 15 FedEx ATP Head2Head clashes when he meets fellow 31-year-old Nadal.

Against Smith, Gasquet broke four times to complete the one-hour, 25-minute result. The Australian had earlier beaten Vasek Pospisil and Christian Harrison to make the main draw.

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Gasquet’s countryman, eighth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, will take on big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic for a place in the third round. Karlovic eked out a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Czech lefty Jiri Vesely. 
The No. 44 in the Emirates ATP Rankings sent down 29 aces to Vesely’s nine. He broke in the final game of the match to seal the result. 

Portuguese qualifier Joao Sousa brought an end to Brit Kyle Edmund’s Cincinnati campaign. Sousa prevailed 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to book a second-round clash with either 11th seed Jack Sock or Japan’s Yuichi Sugita.

In the battle of the lefties it was German Mischa Zverev who got the better of Spaniard Fernando Verdasco on Monday night. The pair had not faced off in nine years and it was Zverev who proved stronger on serve in the 6-4, 6-4 result. 

He did not face a break point and dropped just four points on his first serve. It books a second-round meeting with either 11th seed Pablo Carreno Busta or Paolo Lorenzi.