Los Angeles: Top seeded Richard Gasquet defeated French compatriot Stephane Robert in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP Tour’s Winston-Salem Open on Wednesday.
Gasquet saved seven of eight break points and broke the unseeded Robert’s serve five times in the hardcourt tournament in North Carolina.
“I’ve known Stephane for a long time now, so I know how dangerous he can be,” Gasquet said.
“He likes to play close to the baseline. We’ve practised together often, so I know his game and he knows mine. I didn’t make many mistakes today, and that was the difference,” he added.
Gasquet will next face Australia’s John Millman, who came from behind to win 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 against wild card Bjorn Fratangelo. Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun advanced to his fourth straight Winston-Salem quarter-final with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman.
“Fortunately I played really well on game points and on break points. My serve was there when I needed it, and that helped me a lot today,” Lu said.
Next up for Lu will be number two seed Roberto Bautista Agut, of Spain, who defeated Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Fifteenth-seeded Fernando Verdasco fired 10 aces as he rolled over fourth seeded American Steve Johnson of the Unites States 6-4, 7-6 (9/7). In the quarterfinals, Verdasco will face Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, who toppled American Sam Querrey 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).
Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia advanced when Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic retired at 5-5 in the first set. Meanwhile in New Haven, Italy’s Roberta Vinci got off to a dominating start at the WTA Connecticut Open by routing Croatian Ana Konjuh 6-2, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals.
The 18-year-old Konjuh is ranked 100th in the world and had to get through three rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw at the New Haven, Connecticut tournament.
At the beginning of the match, Konjuh had two break points on Vinci’s serve, but the Italian second seed held on. Konjuh double faulted twice in the sixth game, helping Vinci break serve at love in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead. Vinci then seized control of the match.
Vinci next faces Johanna Larsson, a lucky loser in qualifying who defeated wild-card entrant Shelby Rogers 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 for a berth in the quarterfinals.
The most impressive performance of the day was provided by sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova, who took out Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-2 for a berth in the quarterfinals.
Kvitova, a three-time Connecticut Open champion, is actually the third-highest seed in the tournament as three of the top five seeds withdrew. Kvitova next plays Olympic doubles gold medallist Ekaterina Makarova, a player she beat in the Olympic singles tournament.
