French tennis player Richard Gasquet practices serves with Roger Federer at the US Open practice

Gasquet Movie Ranking: / 5

2012 still fruitless

Richard Gasquet; a child prodigy, dubbed ‘Baby Federer’ he experienced great success as a child. Unfortunately, this fortune has not followed him into his adult career as a tennis pro, and similarly to previous years, 2012 has proved exceedingly disappointing on the title front. A bitter repeat of 2011, Gasquet is yet to secure a title this year and he is running out of time.

So far, 2006 has been his prominent year to date and although having to venture back six years, you cannot deny the Frenchman of his sheer brilliance at that time; skilled, composed and full of flair he conquered on grass, clay and indoor carpet; 3 different surfaces illustrating his versatility and strength. Since winning Lyon, Gstaad and Nottingham in 2006, Gasquet has only managed two single titles since that time; Mumbai and Nice. He sustained a career detour and setback in 2009 when he was suspended after failing a cocaine drugs test. Although managing to clear his name and reduce the suspension after proving the cocaine was not substance abuse, but was present in his bloodstream because he had kissed a woman who was an abuser, he did not come back in the same fighting form and has had an unsatisfactory last few years.

This year he has entered many tournaments including the Australian Open where he was knocked out by David Ferrer, the Estoril Open where he advanced through the rounds to the final but lost out to Juan Martin Del Potro and the Roland Garros where Britain’s favourite Scott’s man Andy Murray championed in the fourth round ending Gasquet’s hopes of gaining a place in the quarter finals. Despite his efforts it appears Gasquet is lacking the pizazz of his rival counterparts, he needs to seriously improve his game if he intends to relive his childhood glory.

Gasquet looking to win

Richard Gasquet will be one of the hopefuls of pulling off what would be a remarkable French open victory in front of his home crowd in France. Gasquet reached the fourth round in 2011 which was his best performance at Roland Garros in his career. Having made the quarter final in Rome, which included a impressive victory over British number one and world number four Andy Murray. Although clay is not his proffered surface his clay game has improved significantly in recent years and the French tennis star will be eying a strong performance in this years competition.

Gasquet who is currently ranked world number twenty, will be looking to take advantage of a weak selection of the draw which sees the previous world number seven play Estonian qualifier Jurgen Zopp in the first round. Looking at the draw Gasquet would hope to be reaching the quarter finals and potentially further should he raise his game and gain some momentum as the tournament continues. A good performance in Paris will leave him in good stead heading into a highly competitive Wimbledon later in the summer, which is a tournament that Gasquet has often performed well in including a semi-final in 2007 which remain as his best grand slam performance to date.

Best known for his quality ground strokes his game is well suited to grass compare to clay, however with the crowd on his side and a good draw, this could well be a chance to register a career best performance at a grand slam, which should he do there is a very good chance he will equal or beat that record at Wimbeldon, which will restore him into the top ten players in the world.

Richard Gasquet practice tennis BNP Paribas 2011

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Richard Gasquet Practises with CF Tennis Coach

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Djokovic v. Gasquet Tennis Masters Cup 07′ RR

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