February 14th is traditionally the day for lovers. At the Palais des Sports, it will also be, but it will be for tennis lovers. And what better way to serve tennis lovers than by offering them a Richard Gasquet match? This is undoubtedly what Jean-François Caujolle thought, playing a quality Cupid for them.
Indeed, the Frenchman will be the headliner on the first day of the 30th Open 13 Provence. For any match, you need two players. In this case, it will be the Swede Mikael Ymer on the other side of the net. This match is not new on the circuit - the two men met recently at the ATP 250 in Montpellier (Ymer won 7-5 6-7 6-1) - nor at the Open 13 Provence where they faced each other in the first round in 2020, with the Swede also winning 6-3 3-6 7-5. Each time, the matches, as the scores show, were very close and no doubt Richard will be thirsty for revenge against Ymer, who is 12 years younger than him (35/23 years old). For Gasquet, who is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, a victory in Marseille would be a consecration for his 11th participation in the tournament, where he plays (almost) at home.
Ymer-Gasquet will not be the only match counting for the first round on Monday. Slovak Norbert Gombos will challenge the No. 5 seed, Belarusian Ilya Ivashka. This will be the first meeting between the two men. Ivashka, who is now well established in the world's Top 50, is the favourite to face Gombos, who is ranked above the Top 100. However, the Belarusian, although ahead in the rankings, has only played one match in 2022, losing in the first round in Montpellier to Mackenzie McDonald. This means that he will certainly lack a bit of rhythm, which should help bring both players up to speed.
The third singles match of the day, which will be the first on the centre court of the Palais des Sports, will pit Italian Stefano Travaglia against Swiss Henri Laaksonen. The winner of this match will face the winner of the Gombos-Ivashka match in the next round.
For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that in addition to the three singles that will be played in the final draw, there will be two doubles and the decisive matches in the qualifying round that will allow four players to enter the final draw.
Everything is said (or almost), all that remains is to?
Happy birthday to all tennis lovers!
