Fuente : Wimbledon
http://www.wimbledon.org

WIMBLEDON: Gasquet Gallops Through

/noticias.info/ Tuesday, June 21, 2005

While the world has hailed Rafael Nadal as the latest, greatest teenager to take the world by storm, everyone appears to have forgotten about Richard Gasquet. The Frenchman is the same age as Nadal, he has been plying his trade around the circuit for the same length of time and, when he first emerged, blinking into the spotlight, he was regarded as better than Nadal.

On grass, at least, he still has a better pedigree than Nadal and he began his Wimbledon campaign with a simple 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber. Gasquet has spent the past three years suffocating in the expectant embrace of the French public.

When he qualified for the Monte Carlo Masters in 2002, still two months away from his 16th birthday, everyone back home perked up. When he won his first match in the main draw, they thought they had another French Open champion on their hands. And it all got a little bit too much for Gasquet.

For the next two years he wandered around the circuit looking miserable, losing matches and going backwards. Coached by his father, Francis, he was overwhelmed by the pressure of both national and parental expectation -nothing was going right and he did not know how to make it better.

At the start of this year, though, life started to look a lot brighter. The French Tennis Federation seconded Eric Deblicker, one of their national coaches who worked with the Davis Cup team, to work with Gasquet. Francis was still involved but he was now the No.2 coach. With a new voice to listen to, Gasquet suddenly started winning again.

He reached the semi-finals at the Monte Carlo Masters, where he lost in three sets to Rafael Nadal, and went on to reach the final at the Hamburg Masters, losing - as so many have before - to Roger Federer. In theory, then, he ought to be a clay court man but, once his little toes felt the grass between them, there was no stopping the man.

He had never won a match on grass in his life before but at Queen's he reached the quarter finals and then won the first title of his career at Nottingham. With the sort of talent that others can only dream of - just go and take a look at his backhand - he seems able to play on any surface.

Against Kohlschreiber he made it look easy. He took his eye off the ball a little in the second set but, all things considered, he will be quite pleased. The errors were limited, the winners were plentiful and happy to try his luck in any quarter of the court, he had too much talent, nous and confidence for his German opponent.

Once the second set had been forgotten, Gasquet was back to his usual ways, patrolling the baseline, leaping forward when the opportunity presented itself and generally tying Kohlschreiber up in knots.

Written by Alix Ramsay


Court 2 - Gentlemen's Singles - 1st Round
Richard Gasquet FRA (27) 6 3 6 6
Philipp Kohlschreiber GER 3 6 3 2 notas_de_prensa_archivo