Richard Gasquet put in a vintage performance to secure his 600th career win on Thursday at the BOSS OPEN. The Frenchman defeated top seed and World No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(8), 2-6, 7-5 to become the fourth active player to reach the 600-win milestone, joining Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
“It’s a big achievement for me. It’s incredible to achieve it,” Gasquet said in his on-court interview. “I played 20 years on the Tour and to win 600 matches, it’s big for me. I’m very happy with this number. Of course I will try to win some more.”
The 36-year-old, who will turn 37 on Sunday, needed five match points in the final game to defeat Tsitsipas and ultimately clinched the win with his second break of the match. Gasquet relied on his stylish ground game to edge the Greek, repeatedly wrong-footing his opponent with clever angles and changes of direction. He also dominated on serve, winning 81 per cent of his first-serve points and losing serve just once outside of a one-sided middle set.
“It’s an incredible match. I had a lot of pressure to win the match. He served so well, and of course it’s a great victory,” Gasquet added. “Of course I had five match points. It was important for me to win that game. You never know what can happen in a tie-break. I was very happy.”
Shot(s) of the Day @boss__open
The highest #ShotQuality scores from Thursday’s play on serve, return, forehand & backhand to create a combined player of the day 🎾🎯@richardgasquet1 takes the top spot on Fh & Bh today along with his 600th career win 👏 #TennisInsights |… pic.twitter.com/jH6KFvDWUQ
— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) June 15, 2023
The victory is Gasquet’s 36th against Top 10 opponents (36-113) and his 11th against the Top 5 (11-62). It is also his first Top 10 win since he beat Daniil Medvedev last May in Geneva.
Gasquet had not competed in Stuttgart since 2008, with the tournament switching from red clay to grass in 2015. In his fourth appearance at the event, he will next face Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, a 7-6(4), 7-6(5) winner against fifth seed Tommy Paul earlier on Thursday.
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Gasquet opened the 2023 season with a title in Auckland, his first tour-level crown since 2018. While he is still three wins away from his 17th title — which could come on his birthday — his two wins this week have lifted him back into the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, up seven spots.
For Tsitsipas, the defeat in his first grass-court match of the season snapped a 10-match winning streak against French opposition. He also dropped to 1-2 overall against Gasquet, with both defeats coming on grass (‘s-Hertogenbosch 2018).