• ATP Tour

Gasquet powers past Davydenko

ESPN staff
February 1, 2012
Richard Gasquet was impressive on serve in beating Nikolay Davydenko © Getty Images
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Just two days after securing his first win since November, Nikolay Davydenko was brought down to earth by Richard Gasquet who claimed a 6-3 6-4 win at the Open Sud de France.

Davydenko snapped an awful run of form with a win over Stephane Robert but he found No. 4 seed Gasquet far too good in the second round in Montpellier.

Gasquet is a high-class operator when at his best and he impressed in seeing off Davydenko. The Frenchman powered down six aces in the opening set and the pressure he imparted on his opponent paid off with a solitary break of serve.

It proved a similar story in the second as Gasquet, who failed to give Davydenko a sight of a break point, worked one break to take the match in an hour and 27 minutes.

French wildcard Guillaume Rufin, the world No. 209, claimed a huge upset when taking out the No. 5 seed Feliciano Lopez 7-6(5) 6-3.

Second seed Gilles Simon had no such problems as he confidently swept aside Flavio Cipolla 6-3 6-2. The Frenchman's return game was in good working order as he broke on three occasions to coast into the next round.

Seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber came through a tough match against Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4 7-5 in a little under an hour-and-a-half. Both men landed 67% of their first serves, though it was the German who had a higher success rate of points won when his first effort went in. There were breaks for each player in both sets but Kohlschreiber, the world No. 33, carved out more opportunities on his opponent's serve and converted all four of his break points en route to a straight-sets success.

Meanwhile, British No. 5 Dan Evans' run at the ATP tournament in Zagreb came to an end as he lost 6-4 1-6 6-1 to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The world No. 296 forced a deciding set against a player ranked more than 200 places above him, but bowed out after an hour and 46 minutes.

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