Seeded second for the tournament, World No.10 Richard Gasquet continues his quest to win an 8th ATP World Tour Title. He locks horns with World No. 51 Lukas Lacko of Slovakia for a place in the last 4 of the Qatar Open, being played in Doha.

Gasquet recently joined the ‘300 match wins club’ when he defeated another Slovakian Grega Zemlja in the previous round. The former World No.7 has returned to the Top-10 for the first time since 2007, showing this extremely talented player is back in the groove and is hungry for more success. His single hand backhand is one of the best in the circuit and he would want to make full use of it in this tournament.

Lacko on the other hand, is coming off an impressive victory over Viktor Troicki in straight sets, indicating he has the ability to challenge higher ranked opponents. His highest ranking has been No.50 on the ATP Charts and he would be looking to better that too this year. The Slovak would be focusing to cause a big upset here and carry some confidence going into the Australian Open.

This will be the second meeting between the two with Gasquet winning their previous meeting in straight sets.