GASQUET WINS IN QATAR

Richard Gasquet has won the Qatar Open by defeating Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the final match. Gasquet won the match by 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. It was a close contest and at one point of time, the match seemed to be going out of the reach of Gasquet, but, the Frenchman held his nerves and made a fantastic comeback. This was the eighth title won by Gasquet in his career.

Gasquet didn’t have a good start in the match. His service was broken in the first and the third game of the opening set and at the end of the third game; he was down by 0-3. He didn’t manage to recover from that stage and lost the first set by 3-6.

In the second set, the first four games went with the serve and the scores were levelled at 2-2 at that stage. Davydenko managed to sneak a breakthrough in the fifth game and got ahead by 3-2. But, unlike the first set, he lost the advantage soon as his service was broken by Gasquet in the sixth game and the scores got levelled. The next six games went with the serve and the set went into the tie breaker in which Gasquet completely outplayed his opponent and won the second set.

In the third and final set, Gasquet was at his best.  He broke Davydenko’s service twice and took a lead of 5-2. Although Davydenko got a breakthrough in the eighth game, but, that didn’t make much of a difference. Gasquet got yet another breakthrough in the ninth game and walked away with the victory.

In the post match interview, Gasquet said, “I couldn’t have thought of a better start of the season than this. It’s a perfect start of the season for me. Today, I wasn’t quite up there at the start, but, I recovered well and I am quite happy with my overall performance in the tournament.”