Damien Kayat previews selected round of 16 matches coming your way from the ATP Tour's Open 13.
2022 ATP Tour
ATP 250 Series
Open 13
Palais des sports de Marseille (Indoor Hardcourt), Marseille, France
Selected Round of 16 Matches- 16th February
Richard Gasquet 44/10 | Andrey Rublev 1/7
Richard Gasquet is a 15-time ATP Tour winner who is trudging his way through the latter stages of his career. It definitely has been a struggle for Gasquet over the past few years.
He has contracted Covid three times over the past two seasons. That isn’t exactly the ideal situation for someone approaching the final salvos of his career. Always a factor on home soil, this match will certainly test Gasquet to breaking point.
He is fresh off a decent showing in his beloved Open Sud de France event. There he beat 7th seed Ugu Humbert en route to a solid quarterfinal showing. He has just exercised revenge over the man who beat him last week: Mikael Ymer.
From one player affected by Covid to another. Andrey Rublev was actually forced to miss Russia’s defence of the ATP Cup earlier this year due to Covid. This has clearly hampered the Russian as he has had a fairly humdrum start to the year.
It’s actually a continuation of a rather sedate end to his 2021 season. I have said it before: I think that Rublev could do with playing slightly less tennis. His 3rd round run at the Aussie Open was yet another disappointment at Grand Slam level.
But he did show some grit last week in defence of his Rotterdam Open crown, falling to eventual champion Felix Auger Aliassime in the semi-final stage. Rublev is an indoor hardcourt monster who just revels in these three-set events.
Verdict: Gasquet to win in straight sets at 48/100
I was actually quite amazed to discover that these two have never previously met on tour. They were actually meant to play in Qatar last year only for Gasquet to withdraw.
Is it redundant to say that this match will essentially be a battle between Rublev’s forehand and Gasquet’s backhand? Were this match played a week ago, I may have been tempted to opt for the Gasquet upset.
But Rublev looked strong in Rotterdam and should canter to victory here.
Tallon Griekspoor 3/10 | Lucas Pouille 49/20
It’s weird to have a player who essentially plied their trade on last year’s Challenger Tour seeded 6th for this event. But you have to consider just how crazy Griekspoor’s season was.
He won a record eight Challenger Tour titles in 2021. More to the point, he won the last five Challenger events that he entered in 2021. He thus became the first player in Challenger Tour history to win five straight titles.
And he has been on the cusp of breaking through on the tour proper this year. He reached his first ATP Tour-level quarterfinal at the season-opening Melbourne Summer Set 1, having to withdraw from his quarterfinal clash with Rafa Nadal.
He then pushed the established Pablo Carreno Busta to five epic sets in his 2nd round loss at the Aussie Open. He also picked up a thrilling victory over Aslan Karatsev last week in Rotterdam.
The downfall of Lucas Pouille has been one of the more depressing subplots in recent tennis memory. It’s easy to forget that the elegant Frenchman- renowned for his shot-making prowess- was once ranked inside the world’s top 10 players.
His form hit a complete and utter nosedive after he reached his maiden Grand Salm semi-final at the 2019 Aussie Open. This was further exacerbated by a terrible right elbow injury he suffered towards the end of 2019.
And he has really battled to get his career back on course in the post-Covid hiatus era. But Lucas Pouille should relish this return to Palais des sports de Marseille. The 2017 and 2018 beaten finalist is a player who thrives on indoor hardcourts.
He is a previous winner of the Open Sud de France and he won the ATP 500 Vienna Open in 2017. If there’s any surface that could resurrect his hopes: this event could be it.
Verdict: Pouille to win in three sets at 6/1
This will be the first career meeting between these two. By all rational measures, Griekspoor should be the one to beat here. But Pouille loves this arena and he has the opportunity to do some major career repair this week. I think he could draw on those muscle memories and eke out a tight victory here.
