Roger Federer plays a high-quality match against an inspired Richard Gasquet in the Shanghai quarters to win the contest in straight sets.
The match
Even if Roger was enjoying a fantastic record against the Frenchman, Richard looked in terrific form in the previous rounds. The contest was full of fantastic strikes especially on the left side as both players possess a tremendous one-handed backhand.
The only difference between Roger and Richard in the first set was a break for Federer in 11th game (6-5) that gave the opener to the Swiss (7-5).
Federer started strong in the second set to immediately break Richard in the first game at love (1-0), but the Frenchman broke back soon after at 15 (1-1). Eventually, Federer conquered a decisive break in the 7th game (4-3) before winning the contest 7-5 6-4 in just 78 minutes.
There was a lot of finesse in the match. FEDERER
Roger was happy for both the result and the kind of tennis performed during the match to comment
“I thought it was a really good match. Some big points, important shots at the right time for both guys sometimes to stay even, and we both created chances. I thought we were able to keep up the level from the beginning till the very end…I enjoyed it because it was slices and topspins and angles and power and finesse. I think the match had a bit of everything.”
Next vs. Del Potro
Roger will face his US Open conqueror, Juan Martin Del Potro, in the semi-final. Unfortunately, the Argentine got injured to his left wrist in the quarter against Viktor Troicki. The Tower of Tandil may be able to play against Federer using only his backhand slice, but that means that the world no.2 will have an enormous advantage. Roger is currently leading Del Potro 16-6 in head to head matches.
| IN THE SEMIS |
| Embed from Getty Images |
