Gasquet Marches Into Umag SF
Fourth seed Richard Gasquet reached his first ATP Tour semi-final of the season on Friday at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag as he moved past Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 7-6(7).
The 35-year-old struck the ball well from the baseline throughout as he broke five times. He failed to serve the match out at 5-4 in the second set, but took his third match point in the tie-break to advance in one hour and 51 minutes.
[WATCH LIVE 1]“I started well,” Gasquet said. “I could not manage to break him at 4-2 in the second set and then I struggled a little bit on my serve. It was tough, but I fought a lot to finish the match in the second set. It was a great tie-break and important to win. I need to be physically ready to go further as I try and reach the final.”
Gasquet is the second-oldest semi-finalist in the tournament’s 31-year history, behind only 35-year-old Paolo Lorenzi, who reached the 2017 final (l. to Rublev). The Frenchman is now 2-0 in his ATP Head2Head Series against Dzumhur and will next face either second seed Dusan Lajovic or German qualifier Daniel Altmaier.