May 12, 2011 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Richard Gasquet of France defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(4) in the third round of the Italian Open (Internazionali BNL d’Italia) in Rome to advance the the quarterfinals where he will face Czech Tomas Berdych. The 16th-ranked Gasquet trailed by a set and 4-2, but evened things up at 4-4. Federer missed several backhands in the second-set tie-breaker and floated a backhand long on Gasquet’s first match point in the deciding tiebreaker.
"I did a very good match for sure and as you can imagine I am very happy to beat Roger," said Gasquet. "This does not happen so many times, so I have to enjoy it. His forehand is very fast and the court today is very fast and very difficult conditions, but I tried to play good as I had nothing to lose and this is very important. I cannot play my game with a lot of pressure."
Federer had won his last eight meetings against Gasquet, but made a series of errors from the baseline as the match wore on as Gasquet drew even and eventually took control of the match.
The seventh-ranked Berdych needed three sets to defeat Jarkko Nieminen of Finnish, 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-2 to advance.
