Rosset downed in quarter-finals

Rosset was unable to stretch his run into the semi-finals Keystone

Marc Rosset has suffered a straight sets defeat in the quarter-finals of the Gstaad Swiss Open, ending Swiss involvement at this year's tournament.

The 31-year-old former Swiss number one was unable to find his way past Argentina’s Gaston Gaudio (ATP 27) – losing Friday’s match 3-6, 6-7 (3-7).

Rosset’s booming serve lacked the consistency which had seen him overcome Romanian fourth seed Andrei Pavel on Thursday, but generally it was Gaudio’s own probing groundstrokes that helped the Argentinian repeat last year’s first round win over Rosset (ATP 102), which was also a straight sets affair.

Not unlucky

“I wouldn’t say I was unlucky today,” Rosset told swissinfo afterwards. “I missed a couple of easy shots and failed to convert a couple of break points, but Gaudio’s playing well right now. He has already won two titles on clay this season and he was just better than me today.”

Rosset was strongly supported in the Gstaad sunshine by a far from neutral Swiss crowd and he showed his appreciation afterwards by waving and bowing to his fans. A final farewell perhaps? Rosset says he hasn’t made up his mind yet.

“The next Gstaad tournament is 12 months away, and a lot can happen in that time,” the former Olympic champion explained. “I can’t promise either way, but if it’s possible to play here again and I am still good enough, then I would love to come back.”

“Great week”

“It’s been a great week for me,” added Rosset after making his first quarter-final appearance at International Series level since February’s Marseille tournament. “I’ve been able to find my game again here, had some great feelings along the way and hopefully gave some pleasure to the spectators.

Following the first round exits of fellow Swiss hopefuls Roger Federer, Michel Kratochvil, George Bastl and Ivo Heuberger, Rosset was at least able to provide the spectators with some Swiss interest during the tournament’s opening five days.

Semi-finals shape up

The weekend will now see attention shift purely to the foreign contenders as the four remaining players head into the semi-finals.

Gaudio, who is one of only two seeded players to have made it past the second round this year, is set to take on Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic in one of the semis.

The second semi-final will pit eighth seed and two-time Gstaad champion Alex Corretja of Spain against Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek, who secured his place in the last four after notching up a convincing two-set win (7-5, 6-2) over Hungary’s Attila Savolt.

In his own quarter-final match, Corretja enjoyed a relatively comfortable straight sets win (6-3, 6-3) over fellow Spaniard David Sanchez, who had in turn beaten Spanish second seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round.

by Mark Ledsom, Gstaad