Richard Gasquet: The almost man

Gasquet has been French tennis almost man. Mixing up superb performances which often provide shock victories with lack lustred ones leaving him well beaten in the next match. He seems to suffer from persistent inconsistency. Even this year, he has caused significant upsets in  the Australian open where he beat ninth seed Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in straight set only to be well beaten in the next round by Spanish number two David Ferrer. On top of this he also lost again to David Ferrer after beating Andy Murray in a shock result.

Gasquet famously lost in the final of the Mercedes cup in Stuttgart after a string of incredible performances top then teenager out massive outsider Del Potro. Ranked at 45 in the world, which is down from his career high of 7^th, Gasquet is a real package and often his ranking is not reflected of his raw talent. One his day he is as good as anyone and can blow his opponent apart with an effective attacking game. However these good days are few and far between and often gapped between a number of poor performances.

The Twenty Five year old seems to be able to turn his ability on and off, often coming back from one terrible set to win the next in extreme fashion, the only concern is that it’s not clear who has the ability to turn it on as certainly Gasquet doesn’t seem to be able to do it over a long enough period to secure him some silverware. With his level of inconsistency, he will surely never win a grand slam until he can put all his good performances spread over the year into one tournament, but with the grand slams monopolised by the world top three players, it is doubtful the Frenchman will ever be able to win more than an upset in the earlier rounds before being well beaten himself.

Virtua Tennis 3: Maria Sharapova vs Amelie Mauresmo

Video clip Ranking: five / five

GASQUET HAS NEW STYLE

The French team headed into the finals of the Hyundai Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, as they defeated the Spanish team. The French team consisted of Marion Bartoli representing the women’s side and Richard Gasquet representing the men.

Marion had a comparatively easy opponent in the form of Anabel Medina Garrigues, whom she defeated 6-2, 6-4. This gave the French side a 1-0 lead in the 3 match faceoff. Gasquet, however, had a tougher opponent in the form of Fernando Verdasco. But Gasquet had an unbeaten run at this year’s Hopman Cup, winning all of his three matches in the competition. Earlier in the competition, Gasquet took on, and defeated Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Wu Di of China in the group stages. The Frenchman claimed his third win of the competition by defeating Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4, the same scoreline by which his partner defeated her opponent.

It has often been said in tennis circles that the French youngster has a backhand, which is better than that of anyone currently in the professional circuit. But critics have also said that he is a player who shows sparks of brilliance in some matches, defeating some big names, but has never maintained that form long enough to get a breakthrough in any of the Grand Slam events. The youngster, however, wishes to change all that this time. He has vowed to develop a more attacking style of play, taking the game to his opposition. By his own admission, he has not attacked as much as some of the big names in world tennis. He used to prefer waiting for his opponent to make a mistake. But at the Graand Slam level, mistakes are hard to come by. His defeat of Verdasco was a major confidence booster, something that he hopes will help him in the Australian Open.

Tennis Video Lesson 8: Richard Gasquet topspin Backhand.

Video Ranking: 5 / 5

video 52 PARIS Richard Gasquet – entrainement, tennis, interview – videos kewego.flv

Video clip Rating: four / five

Olympics 2004 Tennis F Justine Henin vs Amelie Mauresmo (English)

Video clip Score: 5 / five