Gasquet Triumphs on 19th Birthday
http://www.atptennis.com/en/newsandscores/news/2005/nottingham_saturday.asp
French prodigy Richard Gasquet celebrated his 19th birthday in
style on Saturday, capturing his first career ATP title at the
10tele.com Open in Nottingham. Gasquet, competing in his
third career final (Metz 2004, Hamburg 2005) defeated No.8
seed Max Mirnyi 6-2, 6-3, in 1 hour, 3 minutes.
Gasquet looked at home on the grass as he tamed Mirnyi’s
powerful serve and volley game with relative ease, breaking
his opponent three times throughout the match and never facing
a break point. The Frenchman only lost one point on his serve in
the second set.
Gasquet fired four aces during the match and becomes the
youngest ever winner of the 10tele.com Open.
The win completes a remarkable week for Gasquet who will
overtake Sebastien Grosjean and become the No.1 French
player in the INDESIT ATP Entry Rankings when Monday’s
standings are released.
Nottingham was also where Grosjean captured his first career
title, back in 2000. At the time, Grosjean was coached by
Gasquet’s current coach Eric Deblicker.
Gasquet joins Cedric Pioline (1999) and Grosjean (2000) as the
only Frenchmen to have won this title.
Gasquet earns 35 INDESIT ATP 2005 Race points and ? 44,100.
En route to the title he defeated Tomas Zib, Jonathan Marray,
defending champion Paradorn Srichaphan, Taylor Dent and Mirnyi.
Gasquet improves to an impressive 20-5 at ATP level this
year and continues to shine in 2005. The 19-year-old also
captured two Challenger titles earlier this year, in Barletta
(d. Di Mauro) and Napoli (d. Starace), Italy.
Gasquet made his ATP debut in 2002 AMS Hamburg when,
at 15 years, 10 months, he became the youngest player
ever to qualify for an ATP Masters Series event. He defeated
Franco Squillari to become the youngest player to win an ATP
match since Tommy Ho at Rye Brooke, N.Y. in August 1988.
Mirnyi, particularly gracious in defeat, orchestrated a rendition
of “Happy Birthday” in his on-court speech following his loss
as a packed crowd joined in.
Mirnyi is now 23-15 in 2005 and is now 0-2 in ATP finals in
2005 (Memphis, l. to Carlsen). He was bidding for his second
career ATP title (Rotterdam 2003).
In the doubles final, No.2 seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andy
Ram defeated top seeds Simon Aspelin and Todd Perry 4-6,
6-3, 7-5. Erlich/Ram collect their second title of 2005 (Rotterdam).
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID:
Gasquet: “I’m so happy to have won my first tournament.
It’s a very special moment for me, especially to win on my birthday.
“I’m getting used to grass more and more and starting to play
as well on grass as I was on clay. It’s great for me to win my
first title on grass, I didn’t think I could do that at the start of
the week. It’s very satisfying to know that I can play as well
on grass as on clay.”
“I feel great before Wimbledon. It’s great to be the No.1 in
France and I’ll go to Wimbledon with a lot of confidence. I’ll
give it my best and we’ll see what happens.
Mirnyi: “Getting to the finals is a positive and getting a lot
of grass court matches is always great. At the same time I’m
happy for our new upcoming player Richard Gasquet to come
and win this title on his birthday. I’ll analyze and move on,
next week is another week and I’ll look to improve on this week.”
On Wimbledon next: “I like that I’ve played a good amount
of matches in the last two weeks. Wimbledon is a new tournament
starting on Monday and I have to do everything it takes to win my
first round match in order to be able to continue further into the
draw. I feel I’m as well prepared as in the past and maybe better
so we’ll see.”
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