Wawrinka and Gasquet complete London field

 

Originally published on: 01/11/13 00:00

Wawrinka and Gasquet won their third round matches on Thursday, while London hopeful Milos Raonic was defeated by Tomas Berdych at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.

The quarter-final line-up in Paris features the eight players who will be in London next week, with Andy Murray the notable absence, having been forced to withdraw as he recovers from back surgery.

For Wawrinka, the Swiss will be making his debut at the year-end championships following his 6-3 6-2 victory over Nicolas Almagro on Thursday. The 28-year-old will now face Novak Djokovic in a repeat of this year’s epic US Open semi-final after the Serb battled past John Isner 6-7(5) 6-1 6-2.

Gasquet meanwhile, has qualified for the season finale for the first time since 2007, defeating Kei Nishikori 6-3 6-2 after Berdych had beaten Raonic to end the Canadian’s hopes of qualifying.

“You can try to say you're not looking, that you will be concentrating on your own match, but I wanted to know,” Gasquet said. “I was relieved when I knew that I was qualified, so I was not so tense for my match. It was more difficult for me to qualify this time than six years ago."

Gasquet will meet top seed Rafael Nadal in the last eight, while defending champion David Ferrer will take on Berdych. Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro complete the quarter-final line-up in Bercy.

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