Rolex Paris Masters 2017: Richard Gasquet Beats Benoit Paire in Monday Matches
Richard Gasquet stemmed a determined fightback from Benoit Paire on Monday to move into Round 2 of the Paris Masters.
Gasquet took the opening set before Paire, who picked up an injury, somehow rallied to win the second stanza. In the end, the latter couldn't complete the comeback, allowing Gasquet to clinch an entertaining 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win.
Elsewhere, there were wins for other French stars Nicolas Mahut and Jeremy Chardy. There was disappointment for Gael Monfils, though, as he was forced to pull out of his match with Paolo Lorenzi.
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Read on for the results from the French capital and a reminder of how the action played out on Monday at the AccorHotels Arena.
Monday Results
Richard Gasquet bt. Benoit Paire, 6-3 4-6 6-4
Jeremy Chardy bt. Gilles Simon, 6-3 6-0
Filip Krajinovic bt. Yuichi Sugita, 6-4 6-2
Chung Hyeon bt. Mischa Zverev, 6-0 6-2
Nicolas Mahut bt. Vasek Pospisil, 5-7 7-5 7-6 (4)
Peter Gojowczyk bt. Ryan Harrison, 7-6 (5) 6-3
Robin Haase bt. Steve Johnson, 6-2 6-1
Julian Benneteau bt. Denis Shapovalov, 6-4 6-4
Monday Recap
With the top seeds not involved in the competition until later in the week, those who made their way to the AccorHotels Arena for these Round 1 matches would have been looking forward to the showdown between Gasquet and Paire.
While both men can be infuriatingly inconsistent, they each boast remarkable talent. They produced a brilliant three sets of action here, too.
This stunning rally set the tone for the contest, per Tennis TV:
Initially it was Gasquet who appeared stronger, as he won the opening set 6-3 and was finding Paire easy to manoeuvre around the court. With a 4-2 advantage in the second, the former was in touching distance of a routine win.
But Paire, who appeared to be struggling with a knock in the second stanza, suddenly started to find a groove and worked his way back into the match with his excellent backhand. Remarkably, he was able to string together four consecutive games, take a third set point and level the match up.
It was a gargantuan effort from Paire, and he was noticeably in pain at the changeover at the end of the second stanza. Eventually, late in the decider, it was a problem that prevented him from performing at his best and Gasquet moved into Round 2.
As we can see, courtesy of doublefault28, despite his issues Paire didn't give in:
The Paris crowd would have also been looking forward to seeing Monfils in action, but on the eve of his match with Lorenzi, he posted the following message on social media:
"— Gael Monfils (@Gael_Monfils) October 29, 2017"
In another all-French outing, Chardy was far too good for Gilles Simon, who only won three games over the course of their match. Mahut, meanwhile, mounted a wonderful comeback against Vasek Pospisil, eventually clinching victory in a tense third-set tiebreak.
Some big names are set to take to the court on Tuesday, including fifth seed Dominic Thiem, who will face Peter Gojowczyk, and United States No. 1 Sam Querrey who takes on Filip Krajinovic.
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