Gasquet Ready for the Hopman Challenge

French tennis player Richard Gasquet has landed in Australia ahead of the Hyundai Hopman Cup tie against China where he will partner Marion Bartoli as part of the second seeded French team. The world number 19 immediately went to court to have a hit-up in Perth in order to get acquainted with the conditions. Gasquet had an hour long session with local player and world number 86 Matt Ebden and it was a good session for both the players as they are both looking for practice before the start of the summer.

The Frenchman reached a career high ranking of number 7 after going on a brilliant run in 2007 during which he won the hard court title in Mumbai, India and reached the semi finals and quarter finals stages of Wimbledon and the Australian Open respectively. But frequent injuries meant that he could not keep up the momentum that he had and finished the 2009 season at a lowly 52^nd place. But since then, Richard Gasquet has come back to the court a lot fitter, stronger and wiser and he believes that he is good condition to earn the first ever Hopman Cup win for his country along with Marion Bartoli.

Currently ranked 19^th in the world, the 25 year old says that he still has age on his side and that is always a good thing in tennis these days because the younger players are extremely fit and one has to compete with them at every level.

Although Richard Gasquet is not in the top 10 at the moment, he believes that a few good results will get him there and he is hoping that he can finish the year off with at least one major title to his name and a decent position in the ATP rankings.

Richard Gasquet Bio

Richard Gasquet is a far-farmed French tennis player. Born in June 1986, the 25 year old player holds many glories to his name including ATP Masters and Grand Slam titles. He is considered as a master in shooting low winding groundstrokes and single handed backhand play. He is a right handed all court player. The 6’1” taller is currently at No. 11 spot. Currently, he lives in Neuchatel in Switzerland.

He started playing tennis from his early childhood under the guidelines of his father, who was a tennis coach. He got a considerable shot when he appeared on the front cover of French Tennis Magazine in Ferbruary 1996. He was hardly 9 years old then. In 1999, he won World Junior Tennis tournament named Les Petits As. He made his professional debut in 2002 setting a world record of youngest player to qualify for ATP Tennis Tournament. He also broke another 14 year old record in same tournament for youngest player to win a match in ATP tournament. He also player in the Grand Slam tournament same year and was rated no. 1 Junior Tennis Player. He entered ATP top 200’s list ranked 161. And in the next year, he was in the ATP top 100’s list ranked 93. In 2004, Richard Gasquet entered the finals of ATP Masters Tournament, but lost the final match. Also, the same year, he won French Open in mixed doubles category. He had also won Grand Slam title in mixed doubles in 2004 teamed up with Taitiana Golovin.

Many times the young player had a head to head competition with the Swiss legend Roger Federer. He defeated Roger Federer in his first match with Federer in 2005, in quarterfinals of the Masters Series Tournament at Monte Carlo. And thus he became the youngest ever player to defeat World No. 1 player. He also set a winning streak of 10 matches in that tournament. Although, he was defeated in the Semis by Rafael Nadal. He also won his first ATP title that year defeating Max Mirnyi of Belarus in the finals.

He reached Masters Series finals two times in the year 2005 and 2006. Both the times, he was defeated by Roger Federer. He also reached Masters Series finals in Doubles category in 2007 teamed up with Julien Benneteau. But, lost against the twin brothers – Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of USA. He moved to Switzerland in 2005. His best spot in career was No. 7 in July 2007 and and finished at World No. 8 that year.

Richard Gasquet is also involved in social activities. He founded Richard Gasquets foundation in 2008. The foundation is aimed to encourage youths about tennis. Richard Gasquet also landed in a controversy in May 2009, when found positive for cocaine. He explained that the drug was consumed unknowingly after kissing a waitress in a nightclub in Miami. He claimed that the woman herself consumed the drug and was transmitted to him during the kiss. Later, his suspension was lifted in July 2009.