Top seed Richard Gasquet celebrated his 28th birthday today with a stubborn spirit in Eastbourne. The Frenchamn saved nine of the 10 break points he faced, including five while fighting out of a 0-40 hole to hold for a 3-0 lead in the decider of his 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Bernard Tomic.
The Aussie's two-handed backhand is one of his best shots, but at 5-2 in the second set, Tomic, perhaps inspired by the sight of Gasquet's sweeping one-handed backhand, unleashed a running one-handed backhand pass down the line. Tomic's one-handed slice can be a disruptive shot, but he rarely flattens out a one-hander as he did today.
Pained by a back injury, Gasquet is playing just his third tournament since April. Gasquet, along with Feliciano Lopez and Sam Querrey, is one of three grass-court champions still standing. He beat Tomic for the second time in a month following a straight-sets win at Roland Garros.
Saving Grace
Closure didn't come easy today in Eastbourne. Both Angelique Kerber and Camila Giorgi fought off match points in the third set to prevail.
The fifth-seeded Kerber saved two match points trailing Alize Cornet, 5-4, then roared out to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker to pull out a 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (3) decision that spanned two hours and 27 minute. It had to be a heartbreaker for Cornet, who has just one win in four Eastbourne appearances.
Kerber has suffered her own match-point misery in Eastbourne: She held five match points and a 5-3 lead in the decider of the 2012 final, but could not close out Tamira Paszek, suffering a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 loss. Kerber will play Ekaterina Makarova in the all-lefty Eastbourne quarterfinal.
Giorgi overcame a horrid start, but kept fighting and fended off a match point at 5-4 in the third set of her 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 win over Eastbourne resident Johanna Konta.
“It was a tough match, she’s a very good player, she hits very hard, very fast, so obviously she’s a very tough opponent on these grass courts,” Konta said.
Stockholm Syndrome
John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg met for the first time in Stockholm sparking the classic Fire and Ice rivalry 36 years ago. Now, Mac is back in Stockholm collaborating with another Hall of Fame player. The left-hander who brought punk rock rage to the court brings his rhythm guitar playing to rock legend Chrissie Hynde's first solo album, Stockholm. McEnroe plays on "A Plan Too Far." The pair reunited for a BBC Radio 6 Music chat earlier this week.
Asked to assess McEnroe's musicianship, Hynde told *The New York Times Magazine*: "If he actually stopped doing everything else and just got in a band, he would be good. He is good, but he’s a weekend guitar player."
McEnroe has made music and mayhem in Stockholm. The Swedish city was the site of this torrid McEnroe meltdown in 1984:
Though Hynde confessed she "started watching tennis about 30 years later than I should have,” she learned quickly how to tune up the former No. 1's temper and "unleash the monster." “It’s real easy to wind him up,” Hynde told *The Sydney Morning Herald* of McEnroe. “You actually have to be quite careful with him, he’s quite delicate. It doesn’t take much to get him going. Once you know that, it depends on what mood you’re in if you want to access that or not—if you want to unleash the monster."
The Pretenders' leader and New York native are long-time friends. Weeks after McEnroe channeled Hynde at an annual charity shows to benefit the City Parks Foundation at Flushing Meadows, he jammed with her at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan on "Precious" here:
