The Bangkok audience is going to witness an all-French final between Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet at the 2012 Thailand Open.
Fourth-seeded Simon will play for his second title of the season after taking out top seed Janko Tipsarevic. The Frenchman started the match brightly with seizing a break straight away. Tipsarevic did not pose a real threat throughout the set until he squandered a crucial break point at 5-4 for Simon. As it turned out, this would be his only break point opportunity in the clash. As a matter of fact, the Frenchman gave away but a single point on his serve in the second set. On the other hand, he needed eight break chances to finally break the deadlock and go 5-4 up. He maintained his amazing serving record in the last game too and took Tipsarevic’s scalp with one final love game. End score: 6-4, 6-4. Simon was better in most of the statistical categories – winning 70% of his second serve points compared to the Serb’s 38% as well as 55% success with second serve returns (Tipsarevic 25%) might just have been the difference between the opponents.
Simon’s countryman and title challenger Gasquet had a bit longer day at the office as he had to extend his encounter with seventh seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland to three sets. The Finn saved three break points in the opener, but did not put a foot wrong later on. In the end, one converted break point was enough for Nieminen to take a one set lead. Second seed Gasquet was hanging by a thread in the second set after finding himself two breaks down at 0-4. However, he fought his uphill struggle bravely as well as efficiently – three breaks later he was on level terms with Nieminen. The momentum has shifted enough for Gasquet to prevail in the decider, too. It was all over after the Finn suffered a second serve loss of the set. The Frenchman advanced with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 narrow victory and will attempt to raise his first ATP trophy of the year after the final match at 2012 Thailand Open.
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