Vasek Pospisil dealt a blow to Richard Gasquet’s qualifying chances for the season-ending ATP event as the Canadian posted a 6-3, 6-4 upset of the French ninth seed on Tuesday at the Shanghai Masters.
Pospisil fired 10 aces and broke twice in his 69-minute demolition of Gasquet.
“The key was to stay aggressive the whole the time, even in the big moments, going for my shots,” said Pospisil
“I was really proud of myself that when the tight situations came up I was going for my shots. It worked out today and I’m very happy. It’s a huge win for me.”
A second French seed lost as Benoit Paire beat number 13 Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-3. Spanish 16th seed Tommy Robredo started with a win over Albert Montanes 6-4, 6-1.
Roger Federer will take a 9-0 record against Andreas Seppi into his opening match after the Italian booked his spot against the four-time champion with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Lleyton Hewitt.
In other results, Feliciano Lopez defeated Jarkko Nieminen, 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-3 while German Philipp Kohlschreiber beat China’s Gong Mao-Xin, 7-5, 6-2. Kevin Anderson staged a comeback over Victor Hanescu, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) and Fabio Fognini won an all-Italian battle with Paolo Lorenzi, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
