STUTTGART/STARNBERG, June 15, 2023
Richard Gasquet headlined Thursday’s second-round matches at the BOSS Open when he overcame top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-5 to pick up his 600th career win on the tour. The 36-year-old Frenchman won three points less than his opponent but secured victory in two hours and 17 minutes.
The moment Gasquet sealed his 600th career victory 👏#BOSSOPEN pic.twitter.com/zGnoTSwhT4
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 15, 2023
“It’s a big achievement for me. It’s incredible to achieve it. I played 20 years on the Tour and to win 600 matches, it’s big for me. I’m very happy with this number. Of course I will try to win some more,” said Gasquet, who is the fourth active player to reach the 600 wins and first ever French to reach this milestone.
The World No. 55 will next take on Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany, who defeated No. 5 seed Tommy Paul from the United States 7-6(4), 7-6(5) in one hour and 29 minutes.
In the bottom half of the draw, second-seeded US-American Taylor Fritz began his title bid with a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over Russian Aslan Karatsev. The World No. 8 struck eight aces, saved both break points he faced and converted one of his own two break-point opportunities to prevail after one hour and 23 minutes.
“I was really happy. When you come on grass the most important thing is serve and return and I feel I served really well today,” said Fritz, who feels comfortable on grass, as he lifted the trophy in Eastbourne and reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year. The 25-year-old Californian will next oppose Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics, who fought past Yibing Wu of China 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and six minutes.
