The top seed Richard Gasquet looked impressive as he saw off the challenge of home favourite Victor Crivoi 6-3 6-2 in a mere 65 minutes.

The Romanian wildcard Crivoi must have fancied his chances against a below par Gasquet who struggled to come through his opening round match against Oscar Hernandez, and perhaps the expectations from himself and the excited home crowd led to his nervy start which saw him quickly fall behind 0-2. However, to the delight of the partisan crowd, Crivoi broke back and gamely saved two break points to lead 3-2.

The Frenchman who has played Crivoi once before in a challenger match in Brasov in 2004, winning 6-4 6-2, upped his game and broke for 4-3 as the Romanian's running forehand at full stretch went wide. Gasquet's powerful ground strokes, particularly his forehand drives with which he was able to hit clean crosscourt winners, were striking telling blows.

With Crivoi serving at 3-5, Gasquet produced a little magic with a superb inside-out backhand return that landed just inside the baseline for a clean winner to bring up set point, which he converted immediately when the Romanian's forehand went long.

With a break of serve in the fourth game courtesy of a thunderous backhand winner down the line, Gasquet moved into cruise control and held for 4-1. Fully relaxed, the Frenchman utilised his full array of strokes, including deftly executed drop shots to carve out victory at a canter. A second break of the Crivoi serve, this time to love secured the straight sets win with the slightly built Romanian putting up a brave fight. In the end though, it was a rejuvenated Gasquet who prevailed unscathed for a quarterfinal match against another Romanian wildcard Adrian Cruciat or Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili.

"I won 6-3 6-2 but I had to play a good match because you never know what can happen", Gasquet said. "I was leading 2-0 and then he started to play better and better. I was down and so I tried to play my game and focus on my serve. It was a good match, he is a good player."

Gasquet's suspect forehand certainly looked a whole lot better and his serving was in a totally different league too.

"My forehand was better, especially at the end of the match", Gasquet said. "I had problems with it in the first set but in the second it was better, my serve too. I ran okay, so I am happy to win in straight sets because you never know what might happen."

The prospect of a mouth-watering final against defending champion and compatriot Gilles Simon suddenly looks like a realistic prospect. Gasquet knows that he will need to be at his very best should they both fulfill their seeding.

"He is playing the best level in his career for sure", Gasquet said of his fellow Frenchman who looks poised to overtake him as France's top player. "But to play him in the final I have to win another two matches and him too, so it will be hard for us for sure."

Andre Jones

BNR Arena

Bucharest