Richard reached the quarterfinals of Sydney by beating his compatriote and world nr. 7 Gilles Simon 6-4 6-4.
After his victory last week against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard defeated his other Top Ten compatriote Gilles Simon. According to the statistics, both players struggled to hold serve, which Richard managed just a little bit better. Richard's next opponent is another Frenchman: Jérémy Chardy who scored a three-sets win against Igor Andreev.