For his return to clay, this Tuesday in Bastad (Sweden), Hugo Gaston took advantage of the abandonment of Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, seeded number 6 in the tournament, to climb to the second round. The Toulousain will be opposed to Karatsev.
Successful return for Hugo Gaston on clay. Competing this week in Bastad (Sweden), the Toulousain, who had not made sparks on grass (6 games played in three tournaments played on grass, 3 wins only), negotiated his first game well, this Tuesday against Nikolaz Basilashvili. More exactly, if the 16th finalist of the last Roland-Garros signed one of the exploits of this first round by dismissing from his route the Georgian, seeded number 6 and 25th in the world, he owed it to the abandonment of his opponent in the second set (7-6, 3-0, 1h16 of play), of which Gaston had very clearly dominated the start. Basilashvili indeed signaled to the referee that he could not continue and then came to shake hands with the young French player when the latter had taken off leading 3-0.
Basilashvili misses the chances
In the first round, on the other hand, the Georgian had been able to defend his chances correctly. Despite a conceded break from the start (2-0 for Gaston), Basilashvili, after having picked up at first, had even flown away, to lead 5-2 then 5-3. He then let a set point pass. He then missed another chance as he served to win that first set. Gaston took the opportunity to equalize at 5-5 and force the Georgian to play a decisive game. Despite a new set point (the second in this game), at 6-5 in the tie-break, the Georgian has still not managed to conclude. To the delight of our representative and 58th in the standings, who concluded on his second set point. Three games later, his opponent threw in the towel. In the next round, the protege of Marc Barbier will be opposed to the Russian Aslan Karatsev, former member of the Top 15 today 40th in the world.
