Richard Gasquet upsets John Isner to reach the final of Rogers Cup

World number 21 Richard Gasquet continued his amazing run at the Toronto Masters as he stunned USA’s eighth seeded player John Isner in straight sets 7-6(3), 6-3 in the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup on Saturday.

Gasquet has advanced to the title match of Rogers Cup for the second time in his career. He made it to the final in Toronto for the first time in 2006, when he lost to the then world number one Roger Federer in three sets 6-2, 3-6, 2-6.

The former world number seven has reminded of his past top performances during this week. He stunned fourth seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in the third round. Then the French star pulled victory over USA’s Mardy Fish, who was seeded 11th at the event, in three sets 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.

Coming back to the latest match, the first set went to a tie-breaker as neither Gasquet nor Isner managed to claim any breakthrough. However, Gasquet took an early lead in the tie-breaker and capitalized on it to win it 7-3. The French player needed just a single break of serve in the second set to win it 6-3.

Gasquet hit four aces and won 87 percent of the first serve points in the match. The 26-year-old converted one of the five break points he received.

Winner of six career titles, Gasquet has never won an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown. He made it to the finals twice but failed to utilize the opportunity on both occasions.
The Frenchman has reached just his second title match of the season. He was beaten by Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro in the final of Estoril Open in May.

Gasquet will meet the winner of Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic in the final here.