The future is Jannik Sinners, yes, but Richard Gasquet is not an old hat yet. Even though the 21 year-old from Italy won 6:3; 5:7; 6:3, but the spectators will talk about the match at the OWL arena for a long time. For both opponents showed high-class grass tennis, with great and exciting rallies and a lot of courage and fighting spirit.
Sinner, who now will meet co-patriot Lorenzo Sonego in the round of 16 at the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN, dominated the first set. He got an early break at 3:1, brought his service through safely and converted the fourth set point by acing 6:3. And in the second round, the man from South Tyrol had a total of five break points, but was not able to use one. Gasquet’s fighting spirit and overall his strong backhands were awoken. The French player, currently at no. 49 in the world, converted the first set point to make it 7:5. At a score of 5:5 the match seemed nearly lost for the 37 year-old, till Gasquet leaped to the net got the advantage and in the end the game.
Sinner, the no. 9 in the world’s rankings and no. four-seeded in the tournament, got the break straight away in the first game of the third set, but only after the fifth try. Gasqeut faught, he wasn’t always able to stop the opponent’s young elan. Overall with his returns he surprised Sinner again and again. At 4:1 the Italian broke again and brought the match home securely in the end. He probably had wished for an easier task but having a lot of match practice can be valuable. 2023 has been very successful for Sinner so far. He won the tournament in Montpellier, in Rotterdam and in the Masters in Miami he reached the finals (he lost to Medvedev in both), in the Masters competitions in Indian Wells and Monte Carlo in the semi-finals respectively.
The 37 year-old Gasquet has been on tour for 21 years, the French man still coming back youthfully. At the beginning of the year he got a 16th title in Auckland, last week he defeated top-10 player Stefanos Tsitsipas on the grass in Stuttgart.
For Sinner it was his debut in the main draw in Halle, four years ago the then 17 year-old played in the qualifying at the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN – and only just lost against Portuguese Joao Sousa.
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