Gasquet Prevails; Positions Himself for Shanghai

"Simply it's incredible. It's only if Baghdatis wins the tournament that I won't be able to go, or else I lose tomorrow. You know, the Seine is not far from me. I'll throw myself into it. He has to beat Nadal. I have many chances of being qualified. I didn't even hope for it. In Madrid I didn't play well. In Lyon I didn't play well either. I was 13 here. It is unexpected, completely unexpected. Even myself, I can't believe it today.

"Yesterday I thought a bit more about it, and today a lot more. Robredo lost. I knew that Nalbandian couldn't qualify. Baghdatis, I knew he was going to play Nadal. It's not easy to beat Nadal. Of course, the level of this match was not very high, but you can understand that with the tension we both had for the Masters."

Those are the words of homeboy Richard Gasquet who beat Andy Murray 6-3, 0-6, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Masters and give himself a great chance to qualify for Masters Cup.

Gasquet is the first Frenchman to make the semifinals of Paris Indoors since Sebastien Grosjean in 2001. Grosjean went on to win the title. If Marcos Baghdatis, who ended Tommy Robredo's hopes of direct entry into Shanghai, wins tomorrow against Rafael Nadal, who beat Mikhael Youzhny in two quality sets crushing the Russian's chances to make the elite eight, then Richie will have to pull himself out of the Seine and try to beat David Nalbandian, who outlasted David Ferrer in three surprisingly boring sets, to reach the final and give himself a chance.

Exhale.

He better not tank any more sets.