A Spotlight on Richard Gasquet
Born on 18th June 1986, Richard Gasquet is a French tennis player and is currently ranked 18th in the world. His best ever ATP single’s rank was 7 which he achieved in July 2007. His trademark is single-handed backhand grounded shorts.
Born in Beziers, France, Gasquet started playing tennis at the age of four. His father was owner of a tennis club in Beziers and Gasquet started playing tennis under his guidance at the beginning. When he was 9, Gasquet was seen on the cover of a French Tennis magazine.
In 2002, Gasquet started playing in the ATP tour. He is the youngest player to qualify for a Master event, and he achieved this feat after receiving a wildcard entry in a Tennis Master’s Tournament in Monte Carlo. The very same year, at the age of 15, Gasquet entered the grand slam arena by competing in the 2002 French Open. However, he lost in the first round of tournament. In 2002, Gasquet became the world junior champion and was crowned world’s no 1 junior tennis players.
In 2003, he broke into top 100 ATP single’s men’s ranking and is the youngest player ever to do so. He won his first ever grand slam title in the category of mixed doubles at the 2003 French Open. Tatiana Golovin was his mixed doubles partner in the tournament.
In 2005, after fighting bad health for seven weeks, Gasquet reached the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Master Series tournament. He defeated world no 1 at that time, Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the same event. The same year he ended up as the runner-up in the Hamburg Master tournament. His first ATP title came on his 19th birthday after he won an ATP tournament in Nottingham, England. Due to an elbow injury Gasquet remained out of tennis for almost four month in the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006. After a disappointing first half of 2006, Gasquet reached the finals of Toronto Master Series. The same year after winning the first three rounds at the US Open. He lost in the fourth round.
Riding on his Australian Open fourth round appearance in 2007 and his appearance in the finals of the Estoril Tennis Cup, he ended 2007 at rank 11. The same year semi-final appearance at the Wimbledon Championship ensured him rank 7 in the ATP single’s men ranking.
After overcoming injury troubles and a mixed bag of performances in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, Gasquet has started the 2012 season on a positive note. He reached the fourth round of the Australian open by defeating the world no 8 Janko Tipsarevic in 3rd round. He then lost to David Ferrer in the fourth round in straight sets. So far his career record is 260 wins against 165 losses in single’s events. Till now he has won 6 singles titles and one grand slam mixed doubles title. He has appeared in 14 singles finals winning 6 of them and losing in 8.