Fognini defeats Gasquet in a battle of legends at UTS Guadalajara

Fabio “Fogna” Fognini outlasted Richard Gasquet in a physical battle to claim his first UTS victory.

Fognini UTS Guadalajara | UTS

February 15, 2025

A combined 1,033 ATP victories have been logged by Richard Gasquet (607) and Fabio Fognini (426), and on Friday night in Guadalajara, the pair of tour legends gave UTS fans a big treat as they took their talents to a different stage.

The pair of former top 10 talents had not met since 2018 on the ATP Tour, and split their previous four meetings, so tonight’s clash, the second of four round-robin matches played on night one, was a rubber match.

“We know each other really well, we always play great battles together,” Fognini said.

Fognini prevailed, earning his first UTS win in an extremely well played match, 12-16, 18-15, 16-12, 15-14.

“First victory, Vamos,” said Fognini. “I’m older, so I’m more experienced. I understand the format finally.”

First quarter: The Virtuoso shows his experience

“The Virtuoso” Gasquet has reached two semifinals and a final in his previous three appearances at UTS.

The Frenchman showed his experience, winning his “next point counts 3X” to take a 13-10 lead with 45 seconds left in the quarter.

That proved to be the critical blow, as “The Virtuoso” closed out the quarter on his first try, 16-12.

Second quarter: A wild Fognini fightback

Quarter two was close, just like the first. The shot of the quarter was a backhand winner on the 19th stroke of a rally to give Forini a 9-7 lead, but he quickly dropped the next two points on serve.

That was the Frenchman’s cue to activate. He won three straight points to lead 12-9 then won his next point count 3X point to stretch the lead to 15-9 with 1:30 remaining.

“Fogna” refused to quit, however. He knocked a backhand volley winner to level at 15-all and as time expired he led 17-15.

He put the nail in the coffin on the next point winning the quarter 18-15 and leveling the contest at 1-1.

Third quarter: Physicality!

Both players were pushing one another to the brink — long rallies and a lot of tense points characterized the third quarter. It was the touch of Fognini that shined the brightest. He claimed his three pointer with a delicate drop shot to break open the quarter and lead 15-11 with 10 seconds left.

Two points later, the Italian had a 2-1 lead, as he locked up the quarter 16-12 and both players headed, exhausted, to their bench to do the between quarter interview interviews.

How did Fognini feel?

“Let me breathe first then I will tell you,” he said.

Fourth quarter: must-win for Gasquet

Not surprisingly the magical “Fogna” hit a shot of the tournament candidate at 4-2 — a beautiful around the net post winner that will surely be featured prominently on the highlight mashups.

Not to be outdone “The Virtuoso” got into the mix as well hitting a beautiful backhand winner around the net post as well.

That gave the Frenchman a four-point lead but he could not make it stand up as the Italian nailed a perfect backhand winner on deciding point to take the quarter and the match.

“I love to play in these conditions because I love the crowd,” Fognini said. “I liked it a lot.”