Friday the 13th smiles on some and hurts others, it’s a matter of karma. Injured in the shoulder, the Frenchman Constant Lestienne (65th) was forced to forfeit Friday for his semi-final in Auckland.
It’s all good for Richard Gasquet, who qualified without playing in New Zealand for the 33rd final of his career.
This Saturday (early Friday night, French time), the Héraultais, currently 67th in the ATP rankings, will wrestle with Briton Cameron Norrie, 12th player in the world.
For the Franco-French duel, we will come back, but the presence of a Habs in the final of an ATP 250 tournament remains good news, on the eve of the Australian Open which begins on Monday.
Hoping that the unfortunate Lestienne has recovered all of his resources in view of the great fortnight in Melbourne. Injured to a shoulder in recent days, the latter had already been treated on the court during his quarter-final, which he managed to conclude with a hard fight against the Serb Laslo Djere 2-6, 7-6 (7/2 ), 7-5 in 2h46 the day before.
Unable to serve for a time because of pain, Lestienne had even purely and simply abandoned one of his commitments.
Also, Lestienne preferred not to appear on the court this Friday, presumably to optimize his chances of recovery for Melbourne.
In the 1st round, the Amiénois, 30, indeed pulled the Brazilian Thiago Monteiro, 69th, an opponent in his ropes.
For his part, Richard Gasquet will have benefited from 24 hours without playing before measuring himself against Norrie, whom he has never faced, but in theory quite superior to him and renowned for making his opponents work a lot.
For the veteran of Sérignan, this will be the 33rd final on the professional circuit. At 36, Gasquet, fifteen titles to his name, has not lifted a trophy since his title on the grass of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2018. As for his last final, it dates back to July 2021, lost against Carlos Alcaraz in Umag.
Whatever happens, Gasquet will have played well this week and enough matches, in anticipation of his 1st round at the Australian Open, again against a Frenchman, Ugo Humbert (108th).