Paris Masters, Grigor Dimitrov vs Richard Gasquet: Decoding the stats
What's the story
Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov will clash with Richard Gasquet in the opening round of the 2021 Paris Masters.
Dimitrov recently lost to Cameron Norrie in the semi-finals at the 2021 Indian Wells.
Meanwhile, Gasquet suffered a defeat to Dusan Lajovic in Antwerp.
Interestingly, the two players last met in 2017 at the Paris Masters.
Here, we decode the stats of Dimitrov and Gasquet.
Form
Dimitrov is 22-16 in the ongoing season
Prior to the BNP Paribas Open, Dimitrov lost to Casper Ruud in the semi-finals in San Diego.
He failed to win consecutive matches before the US Open.
Dimitrov beat Marin Cilic, Alex Bolt, Pablo Carreno Busta, and Dominic Thiem en route to the Australian Open quarter-final.
He lost to Aslan Karatsev in the quarter-final.
Dimitrov is 22-16 in the season.
Milestone
Dimitrov reached his first semi-finals at the Indian Wells
At the Indian Wells, Dimitrov defeated the world number two Daniil Medvedev to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.
This was his first win against a Top 2 opponent since 2016.
Thereafter, Dimitrov overcame eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz to qualify for the semi-finals.
The former rallied from a set down to reach his first semi-finals at this Masters.
Form
Gasquet has been inconsistent
Gasquet has endured a lean patch recently (14-14).
He lost to Jiri Vesely in the quarter-finals in Orleans (Challenger event).
Prior to that, he reached the semi-finals in Rennes.
Gasquet finished as the runner-up in the ATP 250 event in Umag. Carlos Alcaraz defeated him in the final.
The former also lost to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal during the season.
Do you know?
Gasquet claimed his 550th career win
In March, Gasquet recorded his 550th career win. He achieved the feat after defeating Marco Cecchinato in the first round of Dubai Open. With this, Gasquet became one of only six active players with over 550 career wins.
H2H
Here is the head-to-head record
Dimitrov and Gasquet have met a total of eight times.
The latter leads Dimitrov 5-3 in the head-to-head meetings.
Notably, Gasquet won the first five matches against Dimitrov (2011 Dubai, 2012 Roland Garros, 2012 Bangkok, 2013 ATP Masters 1000 Rome, and 2015 Wimbledon).
Dimitrov won the next three (ATP Masters 1000 Paris, 2017 Australian Open, and 2016 ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai).