Richard spent only 34 minutes on court in his first singles match. His opponent, Teimuraz Gabashvili, did not feel well from the start and retired at 0-6 0-2*.
Disturbed by the sunlight on serve, Richard had to save a breakpoint in his opening game. When the Russian lost his serve from that side, one might still attribute it to the sun. But it became soon obvious that something was wrong with Gabashivili. He took a medical timeout at 0-5, but Richard stayed focused and closed out the set convincingly. Gabashvili threw the towel after having been broken at the start of the second set. Richard's next opponent is Fernando Verdasco, but today is doubles time. Richard teamed up with Jonathan Erlich and they won the first round against the experienced Polish combination Fyrstenberg/Matkowski. The French-Israeli pair will confront Paes/Stepanek.
