[bleu_cheese]

Gasquet nearly running into the linespeople, he's so far back. It's a good thing Verdasco is pretty hopeless right now.

[bleu_cheese]

But, I would say that he's playing well enough. He's winning, after all.

[GasquetFan]

Serving for the match now. Verdasco is not playing well..

[Gagsquet]

Verdasco was awful and gifted the match?

[bleu_cheese]

Positives: Serve, watching Verdasco make errors on easy putaway shots.
Negatives: Court position, shot depth.

However, not a bad match from Gasquet. Both were hitting with a lot of topspin, so it was difficult to attack off of the balls with so much action. Unless of course they were both just in a passive mindset. Either way, I'm happy, he's still undefeated.

[Vlad1980]

Good match from Richard. I think better than against Hewitt, more solid, much better serving. Verdasco was fairly miserable, but still Richard stayed the course, did not lose focus, hit his forehand pretty decent actually.

Allez

[silverwhite]

Originally Posted by Grassquet

Verdasco was awful and gifted the match?

You said it. Not me

[Puschkin]

Originally Posted by Vlad1980

did not lose focus, hit his forehand pretty decent actually.

It can't have been bad, according to this comment.

I only saw the first three games, when Richard was solid and Verdasco's UEs outnumbered his winners.

[tami]

it's early in the season, and for sure it was important to win, but at least he was given the opportunity to play three matches where he could use to determine what needs to be tweaked in the lead-up to the Open.

...plus, i quite liked it how he was in good humour, even cracking a joke with the umpire about a really bad hawk-eye challenge on his part, it was quite funny :P you need to have a little bit of that every now and then, as long as you regroup enough to put in the necessary effort for the win.

on to the final...woohoo!!!

[Puschkin]

Did they play the doubles in the end?

[tami]

nope, cos france had already won the tie, no mixed doubles needed. plus it would've been on a separate court, not centre court, so we would've only been able to follow the livescore.

but yay, go team france :P

[Vlad1980]

Originally Posted by Puschkin

It can't have been bad, according to this comment.

I only saw the first three games, when Richard was solid and Verdasco's UEs outnumbered his winners.

Even against Hewitt, he hit his forehand decent, especially in second and third sets.. although in second set he served horrible that's why he lost it.

It is a very good win against even horrible Verdasco.. Richard just struggled with him so much on hardcourts last few times.

[Cloudygirl]

I watched about 10 mins before I went to work and watched him hit an epically hopeless volley.

It's a really good score line though because he doesn't do well these days against Verdasco.

[Mae]

I like Richie's play, but I just wish his physical size was taller and stronger. It is harder for him to compete again the larger guys IMHO.

[tami]

bartoli and gasquet were interviewed by one HD between the czech rep's singles matches today - those guys at lacoste did good with that khaki-hoodie cardigan with the tricolor edging at the pockets!

the interviewer asked bartoli about how she battled from one set and a break down in the wimbledon semis to win the match, and how she said to the press later that it was due to the fact that she knew her hollywood idol pierce brosnan was in the audience, watching her match. she said she is just a fan of james bond, and just wanted to keep playing no matter how long it took, just so that she could win in his presence. then bartoli said, "but i have my own james bond this week", grabbing onto gasquet's arm at the same time...
..to which gasquet smiled and said, "of course, yeah, for sure!"

it was actually quite comedic, and nice to see that gasquet is feeling comfortable enough now to have a bit of a joke around and in english as well, my my richard, we ARE growing up! keep it coming!!!!