2 things that stood out in Daniel Altmaier's 1R win over Richard Gasquet at Hamburg European Open
Daniel Altmaier of Germany beat Richard Gasquet of France 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the Hamburg European Open on Monday (July 24). The match lasted for less than two hours, as the 24-year-old German breezed to victory.
Altmaier will play his second round match on Wednesday. He is expected to go deep into the tournament on his home soil and remains one of the favourites to reach the last four.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1. Richard Gasquet was not able to put enough pressure on Daniel Altmaier’s backhand
There were a lot of crosscourt backhand exchanges between Daniel Altmaier and Richard Gasquet throughout the match. However, the 37-year-old Frenchman could not do enough with his much-vaunted backhand to put pressure his opponent.
Gasquet was not able to hit his crosscourt backhand with a sharp angle often enough. As a result, his backhand was often directed at Altmaier’s forehand or gave the German an opportunity to go around his backhand to take the ball with his forehand. That allowed Altmaier to dominate the majority of the rallies.
The German broke Gasquet in the fourth game of the first set, but the Frenchman broke back to level the score. Altmaier then broke the Frenchman in the 11th game and served out the first set.
#2. Daniel Altmaier exploited Richard Gasquet’s 2nd serve
Daniel Altmaier took advantage of Richard Gasquet's second serve throughout the match. A weaker second serve meant that the Frenchman failed to capitalize on the advantage he had in the second set. Gasquet started the second set in great fashion by breaking the German in the very first game.
However, Altmaier broke back in the eighth game to level the score and then broke Gasquet once again in the 10th game to finish the match off. The Frenchman failed to put a straightforward overhead smash away and hit it into the net on match point to hand the German a victory.
Gasquet was able to win only 45% of the points on his second serve in the match and faced a break point 16 times. The Frenchman could fare only marginally better with his first serve, managing to win only 57% of the points. Altmaier, in comparison, won 71% and 55% of the points on his first and second serves respectively in the match.