Facing Andrey Rublev, who had taken out the slap box, Richard Gasquet suffered a very clear defeat on Wednesday in the second round of the ATP 250 tournament in Doha (6-3, 6-4).
In a first round that got off to a flying start, it was already 5-2 for the Russian, world number 5, after a quarter of an hour of play. From 2-2 to 2-5 and 0-30 on his service, Gasquet had even lost fourteen points in a row. Painless on the return (three points scored in the first set, five in the second), the 36-year-old Frenchman, climbed to 126th place ATP thanks to his final last week in a Challenger tournament in Bahrain, was constantly overtaken by the pace imposed by Rublev, who is not used to nuance or variety.
Facing young Mensik in the quarterfinals
In the second set, Gasquet lost his serve again, at 2-1 against him, and as he never threatened Rublev on his commitments, his cause was quickly heard (6-3, 6-4 in 56 minutes ), which takes nothing away from his victory the day before against Shevchenko (45th ATP), the first in six months on the main circuit.
In the quarter-finals, Thursday, Andrey Rublev will face the Czech promise Jakub Mensik (116th at 18 years old), who defeated Andy Murray on Wednesday, after a 3h23 marathon (7-6 [6]6-7 (3]), 7-6 [4]).
