QATAR — Richard Gasquet, the world number 10, raised hopes of a climb towards the top five during 2013 with a gutsy fightback which carried him from the brink of defeat to the Qatar Open title on Saturday.
Report by SuperSport
The second-seeded Frenchman snatched an improbable 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory over Nikolay Davydenko, the unseeded Russian, who led by a set and a break of serve and seemed to be heading towards a notable triumph when he had points for 5-2 with a double break of serve in the second set.
At that crucial stage, Gasquet hung in without ever playing his best tennis and after Davydenko needed an injury time out in a final set during which he also appeared to tire, Gasquet surged through to the eighth title of his career.
“This is a big success for me and it was very tough,” Gasquet of the two-and-a-half hour struggle.
“Nikolay was tired and I fought as much as I could. It was a good win against him because he plays so fast.
“It’s also incredible to win here where so many famous players have won in the past.”
Past fields included Rafael Nadal, who belatedly had to withdraw this year and Roger Federer, both of whom Davydenko beat to win the title three years ago.
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It would have been a remarkable effort after so little tennis in recent months and at the age of 31, to have won again. Gasquet was encountering frustrations against Davydenko’s hustling style in the first set.
He lost his opening service game after being unluckily penalised for a line judge’s wrong call and then was narrowly prevented from making the break back.
That happened after Davydenko’s return of serve was mistakenly called out, denying Gasquet the chance of making a comfortable put-away and allowing the Russian to get the rally replayed after an appeal to the Hawkeye computer replay system succeeded.
This helped Davydenko accelerate to a 3-0 lead, but only after Gasquet had pressed hard on his advantage point and still saw Davydenko escape with a sudden dashing backhand winner down the line.
