Marcos is through to the second round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam after beating Benoit Paire on Wednesday. Marcos was leading 6-0, 6-7(3), 4-0 when his French opponent was forced to retire due to illness.
Marcos goes on to face fourth-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who dismissed Viktor Troicki in straight sets. Gasquet has started the season in a rich vein of form, only losing one match so far. He won titles in Doha (d. Davydenko) and Montpellier (d. Paire) and reached the fourth round of the Australian Open (l. to Tsonga).
Marcos takes confidence from a 2-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head record over the No. 10-ranked Gasquet. He defeated the right-hander most recently in straight sets at last year’s London 2012 Olympics, and before that in the 2010 Sydney final.
"Gasquet is a very good player, but I think if I play the game I've been playing lately, I can find the solution to win,” said Marcos. “Gasquet is in great shape and has just one loss this year at the Australian Open. I will continue what I'm doing, playing the right way and finding solutions to win. "
“It will be important to serve well to be able to win more free points. I'll try to be more aggressive, because he is a player who likes to stand three-to-four feet behind the baseline. I'll try to play faster, to get him out of his comfort zone.”
The match is scheduled for second on centre court on Thursday, with the first match beginning at 11am local time (GMT +1hr). Check out the full order of play.
Stay tuned for more soon…
