Just three days after capturing the Antwerp Open title, Richard Gasquet, seeded seventh, faced Argentina's left-hander Guido Pella at the Swiss Indoors for the very first time. Down 6-2, 2-1, the Frenchman retired putting Pella into the second round.
Up next for the 59 ranked player is Mischa Zverev, who he has never played before, making it the first meeting.
Pella wins the opening set
Gasquet struggled through his opening service game, going down 15-30 before going on and holding to serve to get the match underway. Pella, on the other hand, started confidently. He hit two aces and a couple of winners to also get on the scoreboard. The Frenchman was showing signs early on of fatigue, with his movement being limited and struggling on serve.
Down love-30, Gasquet hit a double-fault to present the Argentinian with three break points. An unforced error in the next point gifted the match's first break. The 26-year-old consolidated the break impressively, breezing through his service game hitting two more aces as he went 3-1 up.
The 29-year-old held serve the next game, showing little signs of improvement but was still unable to contain Pella. Gasquet was failing to time his shots the way he would like and with Pella 4-2 up, Gasquet mistimed a backhand which gave the world number 59 a double break point for a double break lead.
A clean forehand winner in the next point meant Pella had a comfortable 5-2 lead. Serving for the set, the left-hander allowed Gasquet the chance to gain one break back as he gained a triple break point. However, Pella responded brilliantly, saved all three break points, earned a set point and went one up on the Frenchman.
Gasquet retires three games into the second set
The Frenchman started the set with a hold of serve to love but his body language wasn't improving as he moved gingerly in between points. Just like the opening game of the match, Pella started off tremendously firing three aces as he held serve for 1-1. With the Frenchman's serve and movement all over the place, the world number 59 then found an opening and grabbed a double-break point.
Gasquet fired an error and the one-way traffic continued as Pella broke at the first time of asking to go 2-1 up. The Frenchman couldn't continue with the discomfort and decided it was best to retire handing the victory to the Argentine. From the minute the match got underway, there were signs that Gasquet wasn't 100% which comes just three days after claiming the Antwerp title. He will now rest up and hope to be fit in time for the last 1000 Masters event at the BNP Paribas Masters next week.