Gasquet beats Paire to claim second title of season
Frenchman Richard Gasquet beat compatriot Benoit Paire 6-2, 6-3 Sunday.
Posted!
Sent!
Richard Gasquet of france poses with his trophy after defeating countrymanh Benoit Paire in the Open Sud de France final.(Photo: Sylvain Thomas, AFP/Getty Images)
MONTPELLIER, France (AP) — Frenchman Richard Gasquet beat compatriot Benoit Paire 6-2, 6-3 Sunday in the Open Sud de France final to win his second title this season.
“It’s fabulous to win two titles in a season, especially so early,” Gasquet told Canal Plus television. “I’m very motivated for the remainder of the season. I hope I’ll win some more titles this season.”
Gasquet broke Paire twice for a 5-2 lead and took the opening set when a backhand return from Paire sailed wide.
The third-seeded Frenchman dropped serve once in the second set, but broke Paire three times. He clinched victory when Paire netted a backhand.
It is Gasquet’s ninth career singles title. He also won the Qatar Open in January.
“I knew I could rely on my experience. He was playing his first final in France, it’s always a tricky situation,” Gasquet said. “Benoit is a very dangerous player. He has a very special game that can be disconcerting. Therefore I’m very happy to have won here in front of my friends and family.”
Paire was appearing in only his second final on the main tour. He was a runner-up in Belgrade last year, losing in straight sets to Andreas Seppi of Italy.
“I rushed a lot of my shots,” Paire said. “I thought about the final in Belgrade where things went bad for me. When I lost the first set 6-2, I told myself ‘it’s happening again.’ I think the result is a bit normal. You must play a few finals to know how it feels.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
{ “assetid”: “1906337”, “aws”: “sports/tennis”, “aws_id”: “sports_tennis”, “blogname”: “”, “contenttype”: “story pages “, “seotitle”: “Richard-gasquet-benoit-paire-open-sud-de-france”, “seotitletag”: “Gasquet beats Paire to claim second title of season”, “ssts”: “sports/tennis”, “taxonomykeywords”:”Belgrade,Richard Gasquet,France,Qatar,Andreas Seppi,Italy,Benoit Paire”, “templatename”: “stories/default”, “topic”:”belgrade,richard-gasquet,france,qatar,andreas-seppi,italy,benoit-paire”, “videoincluded”:”no”, “basePageType”:”story” }
