In contrast to his first round match, Richard needed only little more than two hours to defeat Denis Istomin 6-3 6-4 6-4.
Richard was quickly a break up in the first set to lead 3-1, but had to accept a rebreak for 3-3. From that moment on, he was hardly troubled on serve anymore, while Istomin struggled a lot. Richard broke at the end of the first set and early in the second and third set to go ahead 6-3 6-4, 3-1. Some unforced errors from Richard brought Istomin back into the set, but there was no turn-around as Richard broke again to close out the match 6-4.
Richard scored 35 winners versus 29 errors and will meet the winner of Gonzalez/Canas in round 3.
