By Jake Davies
- Kyle Edmund [1] W.O. Ilya Ivashka [Q]
- Edmund vs Richard Gasquet [4]
ANTWERP, BELGIUM – Kyle Edmund made his way into the Antwerp semi-finals via walkover, and goes on to face Richard Gasquet in a big semi-final encounter.
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Kyle Edmund [1] vs Richard Gasquet [4] | H2H: Edmund leads 2-1
Kyle Edmund will face France’s Richard Gasquet for a place in Sunday’s Antwerp final, in a re-match of the semi-final of two years ago, in which Gasquet came out on top in a tight three set match.
Edmund has been experiencing an upturn in results and a change in fortune in recent weeks, doing very well in the Asian swing and he has carried that form from Asia into a tournament where he has performed well in the past.
Gasquet has a serve that will not always blast his way through matches easily, but it is a single shot that is highly underrated and his simple, but effective service motion actually enables him to rely on the first serve better than many may think. He does get the best out of the serve in the indoor conditions, hence why his results always seem to improve in the European indoor tournaments.
The Frenchman predominantly plays a lot of his tennis far behind the baseline, soaking up all the pressure he can and he really does that in order to buy himself time in the rally, while remaining a threat off the backhand in those awkward positions from deep in the court.
Edmund will have the luxury of time on his side, and he will mostly have control of the court because of the nature of Gasquet’s game, but the key for Edmund is to maintain the control on his aggressive groundstrokes. The Frenchman does hand over plenty of ground, just like Albert Ramos-Vinolas did in Edmund’s second round win, but Gasquet is far more dangerous and threatening from those positions in the court and can really pick his opponent off regularly with passing shots from both wings.
For Edmund, it is about learning from his three previous meetings, including the loss in Antwerp two years ago, showing lots of discipline and picking his moments wisely against one of the more experienced competitors on the tour. Losing to Gasquet at this event a couple of years ago was a steep learning curve for the Brit, but now he has to show his steady improvement and rise since then and show he really does have his sights set on bigger things and is ready to compete for tour titles on a regular basis.
Prediction: Edmund in three sets
Edmund & Gasquet are scheduled on Centre Court, not before 5pm (4pm BST).
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