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]Kiranpal Pannu got his first taste of the big time, playing against Richard Gasquet on Monday night.
Wellington’s KP Pannu may have lost his first round match 6-3 6-1 against Richard Gasquet at the ASB Classic on Monday night, but tried to give the spectators plenty of entertainment.
Pannu earned his wildcard by beating Finn Reynolds in the playoff tournament last week and he hoped this would lead to an appearance on Centre Court.
He got his wish when he was drawn against the veteran Frenchman and made he made the most of this experience.
However, he wasn’t able to live with Gasquet, who barely put a foot wrong.
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Early on Pannu revelled in the spotlight, playing up the crowd and encouraging them to cheer when he won a big point.
As the set continued Pannu was just holding on in the serve, employing the tactic of forehand slicing to Gasquet’s one-handed backhand.
It did partially work, but the Wellington was broken in the seventh game and that was enough to give the 36-year-old the opening set.
Pannu had an exceptionally long toilet break at the end of the set and still looked to be sweating profusely when he came back on court.
In the second set Pannu still couldn’t make any inroads into Gasquet’s serve and the Kiwi would go too big too early in rallies and make mistakes.
Overall, Pannu made 23 unforced errors, compared to two from Gasquet and Pannu only won three points on Gasquet’s serve for the entire match.
Pannu will be a part of the New Zealand team for next month’s Davis Cup tie against Bulgaria in Christchurch and won’t have to play against anyone at Gasquet’s level, unless Grigor Dimitrov makes a surprise return to the Bulgarian team.
So hopefully this experience will stand Pannu in good stead for that tie.
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