MARSEILLE, France, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Highly regarded prospect Richard Gasquet reached his third career second round Monday at the Marseille Open.
The French wild card rallied past Feliciano Lopez of Spain, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4, in the only main draw match Monday at the indoor tennis event.
Last April, Gasquet made his ATP debut at the Tennis Masters Series event in Monte Carlo, where he received a wild card and became the youngest player ever to qualify for the main draw of the TMS tournament. He was 15 years, 10 months at the time.
The teenager also advanced to the second round at Adelaide last month.
Gasquet is just 3-7 on the circuit, but he captured two Futures titles and one Challenger crown last year. In addition, he finished 2002 as the No. 1 junior in the world after winning the French and U.S. Open boys' titles and reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open.
Gasquet will play the winner of Wednesday's match between 2001 champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia and Olivier Rochus of Belgium.
Another former top-ranked junior, Roger Federer of Switzerland is the No. 1 seed this week. Federer won both his Davis Cup singles matches last weekend, including the fifth and deciding rubber to lift his country past the Netherlands and into the quarterfinals.
Second seed Jiri Novak also won both his Davis Cup singles matches, but the Czech Republic lost to Russia. He reached the quarterfinals at the Heineken Open last month but has lost his last two ATP matches.
