ATP Moscow Final - Richard Gasquet vs Mikhail Kukushkin

[JRAJ1988]

I'm presuming Gasquet will win this in 2 sets though Mikhail beat defending champion Seppi in 3 sets. Kukushkin has climbed the rankings this season and will be in the top 100 on Monday.

Richard Gasquet overcame the giant Karlovic in 2 sets so he should be the fresher of the two.

 

[jaggy]

You would really expect Gascket to win here

 

[norbac]

Big match for Gasquet and his London hopes

 

[ruerooo]

Big match for Gasquet and his London hopes

How many places will he improve his standing if he wins?

 

[romeo8880]

lol at this final

 

[Overdrive]

Can someone post a stream? Sportlemon isn't working.

 

[Who Am I?]

Lol, never heard of this Mikael guy. Gasquet should be in for a routine victory.

 

[Mainad]

Lol, never heard of this Mikael guy. Gasquet should be in for a routine victory.

Kukushkin is outside the top 100 and has only once made it to the top 50 but he usually plays his best tennis in his home country. His one title came at the St. Petersburg Open in 2010 where he beat fellow Russian, Mikhail Youzhny, then a top 10 player, in the final in straight sets. This will be his second only ever ATP final, again against a top 10 player and, predictably, on Russian soil.

Gasquet should certainly be the favourite but he may not find his opponent to be a pushover!

 

[MonkeyBoy]

He was in Rosol's corner during his win over Nadal.

 

[Lukhas]

How many places will he improve his standing if he wins?

I heard it would be about 60pts since he already had his quota of 250s played, so his worst performances are replaced with his bests. Raonic is basically 90% out of the race anyway due to this week's result, while Tsonga still is since he lost one round later than Raonic and won a tiny bit more points than Gasquet on the Asian tourney. In short, it's better if he wins.

TBF, his worst possible match at Moscow would've been against an in-form Dr. Ivo. Didn't happen. With this draw, and considering neither Raonic or Tsonga did their best this week and the hellish draw at Basel (it cleared a little bit but still), a victory at Moscow is almost mandatory. Almost, because always consider that playing a local player isn't easy as Tsonga learned few days ago (despite eventually winning).

 

[tipsa...don'tlikehim!]

Kukushkin is outside the top 100 and has only once made it to the top 50 but he usually plays his best tennis in his home country. His one title came at the St. Petersburg Open in 2010 where he beat fellow Russian, Mikhail Youzhny, then a top 10 player, in the final in straight sets. This will be his second only ever ATP final, again against a top 10 player and, predictably, on Russian soil.

Gasquet should certainly be the favourite but he may not find his opponent to be a pushover!

Kukushkin is outside top 100 for a reason, a surgery when he was playing his best tennis (hips or back? forgot), anyway he was the man who beat Monfils at AO 2012 before losing to Andy Murray.

 

[tipsa...don'tlikehim!]

He was in Rosol's corner during his win over Nadal.

Indeed, because they played doubles together.

 

[tipsa...don'tlikehim!]

Go Gasquet, you can do it in straight sets

http://www.sportlemon.tv/20131014/vv525b8d686d26c0.05515309-663111.html

 

[JRAJ1988]

Kukushkin 5-3 up in the 1st set!!!

 

[tipsa...don'tlikehim!]

Go Gasquet, you can do it in straight sets

http://www.sportlemon.tv/20131014/vv525b8d686d26c0.05515309-663111.html

Fail!

in 3 ?

 

[Who Am I?]

Kukushkin is outside the top 100 and has only once made it to the top 50 but he usually plays his best tennis in his home country. His one title came at the St. Petersburg Open in 2010 where he beat fellow Russian, Mikhail Youzhny, then a top 10 player, in the final in straight sets. This will be his second only ever ATP final, again against a top 10 player and, predictably, on Russian soil.

Gasquet should certainly be the favourite but he may not find his opponent to be a pushover!

Thanks mate.

 

[Who Am I?]

Gasquet broken, now just 2 games away from defeat.

 

[romeo8880]

A buddy of mine wants to know how players lose matches or even sets to challenger players like Kukushkin and Haase.

 

[Who Am I?]

A buddy of mine wants to know how players lose matches or even sets to challenger players like Kukushkin and Haase.

You are not alluding to match fixing, are you?

 

[underground]

You can see Kukushkin's tactic is playing BH DTLs to Gasquet's FH, Gasquet's hits back to his BH and so on, when Gasquet finally hits a CC FH, Kukushkin will hit the FH DTL to kill.

 

[JRAJ1988]

Gasquet breaks back

 

[Who Am I?]

Gasquet breaks to win the title. What a choke by Mikael.

 

[rkadeFR]

Gasquet FTW !

Great match from kukushkin though, so powerful

 

[romeo8880]

Lol gasquet struggles with the weakest players. Up your game Richard!

 

[Lukhas]

I'm watching a replay of the match. Kukushkin did the right thing during the whole match: avoid the CC BH rally. He played almost everything on Gasquet's FH unless he was in a very good position. Tactically speaking he did what was right, but he cracked in the 3rd set. Despite having made some progress on that wing, Gasquet seriously needs a new FH to avoid that kind of problem against hard hitters like today's opponent.