Monte Carlo Masters: Richard Gasquet, A Genius Unfulfilled

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: April 11, 2011

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As the nonpareil of the era emerged, it felt like his replacement was already in waiting.

At the 2005 Monte Carlo Masters, Richard Gasquet defeated Roger Federer, emerging from a captivating third set with his reputation enhanced and genial talent verified. As well as the magnitude, it was the manner of the victory that also suggested such performances would become the rule.

Immersed in a decisive tiebreaker, the Frenchman took the game to the Swiss—so irrepressible in tight moments—and punctuated the match with a Gallic flourish. First, a brutish slap of a forehand breached the world number one’s defence. Then, on match point, he castigated Federer’s net approach with an arrowed backhand winner.

Only the giddily unknowing celebration gave away his precociousness. 

Gasquet would meet Rafael Nadal next—about to embark on an unprecedented dominance of the red dirt—in the subsequent semifinal and push him close in a three-set defeat. All seemed well. He looked comfortable at the deep end, as those who had feted him with such unnecessary hyperbole as a child, had in the very least hoped.

Six years on, as much of the elite congregate in the principality for the 2011 edition, it remains as comfortable as Gasquet has ever looked. The victory over Federer remains his only one, while his adversary has beaten him eight times since. Tight three-set encounters with Nadal quickly became straight set demolitions.

So now, with every year that passes, questions lurk with ever greater salience: when will the astonishing talent of Richard Gasquet come to fruition? Will it ever happen? Was his talent over-inflated in the first place? He is approaching the age now when talk of potential feels increasingly passé, especially as such a divine technique underscored his game from the very off. It would be convenient now to place him amongst all the other players that promi...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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