Gasquet, Pouille, Sousa Advance In Madrid

Richard Gasquet, Lucas Pouille and Joao Sousa moved into the second round on day two of the Mutua Madrid Open.

Gasquet, the No. 10 seed, was flawless on serve in his opening match against local favourite Roberto Carballes Baena, saving all three break points against him to prevail in one hour and 47 minutes 6-1, 7-6(5). The Frenchman will next renew his rivalry with wild card Fernando Verdasco in the second round. Verdasco currently leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head by 8-7.

Pouille, a qualifier, continued his outstanding clay court season by recording one of the biggest wins of his career over No. 12 seed David Goffin, saving four match points to prevail in their epic battle 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(7). Pouille saved three match points while serving at 4-5 in the final set, then saved another match point down 6-7 in the final set tie-break with a backhand winner. He converted on his second match point opportunity and dropped to his knees in celebration. Pouille will now play the winner of the match between Sam Querrey and qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Sousa only needed one break point opportunity in each set of his match against Nicolas Mahut, grabbing the lone break in each set to comfortably advance 6-4, 6-4. The Portuguese also landed 78 per cent of first serves and saved each of the six break points that he faced in the match, all of which came in the opening set. Next up for Sousa is lucky loser Marcel Granollers, who made his way into the draw due to the withdrawal of Roger Federer. Sousa leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head by 2-1.