Gasquet knocks off Tsitsipas to earn 600th career win

Richard Gasquet earned the 600th match win of his career on Thursday with a 7-6 (8), 2-6, 7-5 upset of top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas at the ATP Stuttgart event.

The veteran Frenchman whose crack one-handed backhand has served him well over two decades on the Tour, turns 37 in two days. 

Gasquet took two and a quarter hours to win into a Friday quarter-final against the last German in the field, Jan-Lennard Struff.

The veteran came good on his fifth match point as Tsitsipas mis-hit a return which sailed long.

“It was an incredible match, there was a lot of pressure at the end,” Gasquet said. 

“He served well; this is a big victory for me.”

Gasquet survived 19 aces off the Greek’s racquet as Tsitsipas found it difficult to make the switch form clay to the summer grass with Wimbledon approaching.

The winner was appearing in Stuttgart for the first time since 2008 when he lost the final to Juan Martin del Potro.

“I want to go further here,” he said. “It’s great for me to win against Top 5 guys like Stefanos.

“There were a lot of opportunities for me in the third set. It was good to win that last game as you never know about a tiebreaker.

“I’m very, very happy.”

Gasquet called victory No. 600 “a big achievement for me after 20 years on the Tour.

“It’s big for me, I’m happy with this number and I’ll try to go further tomorrow.

“I have nothing to lose, I’ll try to play my best.”

Gasquet scored his first Top 10 victory since beating Daniil Medvedev in the Geneva 13 months ago; he last defeated an elite on grass at 2015 Wimbledon, putting out No. 4 Stan Wawrinka in a quarter-final.