Gasquet and Grosjean put France ahead

CLERMONT FERRAND, France, Feb 9 (Reuters) Richard Gasquet and Sebastien Grosjean produced contrasting performances to give France a 2-0 lead over Romania in their Davis Cup world group first-round tie today.

Gasquet eased to a 7-5 6-2 6-2 win over Victor Hanescu while Grosjean struggled to record a 4-6 5-7 6-3 6-1 6-2 victory over Romanian number one Andrei Pavel.

The 20-year-old Gasquet, ranked 16 in the world, took 93 minutes to overcome the Romanian whose ranking has dropped to 755 after a back injury last year.

Hanescu, who reached 35 in the world before his injury, kept pace with the French number one on the indoor hard court for most of the first set of the first-round tie.

Neither player earned a break point for 10 games until Gasquet converted his first to take the 25-year-old Romanian's serve and went on to hold his own service for the set.

After that Gasquet took control, securing two breaks of serve in each of the next two sets against an opponent who looked short of match practice.

The Frenchman clinched the rubber with a booming forehand.

Grosjean made life tough by squandering a 3-1 lead in the first set against the 33-year-old Pavel before twice dropping his serve. In the second set the 45th-ranked Grosjean was 5-2 up before losing five games in a row.

By the third set, Grosjean had sorted himself out and Pavel's form had dipped. The Frenchman won the set with a single break of serve and took the fourth, breaking Pavel three times.

Pavel, ranked 118, had little left to offer and Grosjean wrapped up the rubber on his second match point with a forehand that wrong-footed the Romanian.

REUTERS DKS BST0125