Richard Gasquet Biography
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performance in Grand Slam singles tournaments was reaching the semifinals of the 2007 and 2015 Wimbledon Championships and the semifinals of the 2013 US Open. His best performance in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 singles tournaments was being the runner-up in Hamburg in 2005 and Toronto in 2006 and 2012. He won the mixed doubles Grand Slam title at the 2004 French Open, partnering Tatiana Golovin. He won the men's doubles Olympic bronze medal in 2012 with his doubles partner Julien Benneteau. Gasquet is best known for his long groundstrokes and his one-handed backhand.
Gasquet is an all-court player, known for his complete and elegant game as well as his single-handed backhand, which is considered to be one of the best ever. His forehand is his weaker wing, and is generally less consistent and slower. For his forehand, Gasquet uses a semi-western to Eastern grip with an unusually long take-back. However, upon contact, he hits the ball flat with an eastern grip while flicking his wrist, seemingly combining flat and topspin strokes together. It is due to this that his forehand is sometimes considered "awkward" and less effective.
Gasquest's single-handed backhand is considered one of the most graceful, efficient and effective backhands ever. Like his forehand, he winds up his backhand very far backwards, his left hand supporting the take-back. Upon release, he flicks his wrist as well and produces a large follow-through and finish, executing one of the most deadly top-spin single-handed backhands. His backhand is known for its consistency, speed and accuracy, and has been acclaimed by many past players and commentators such as Robbie Koenig, John McEnroe and Brad Gilbert. His ability to create pace and angles with it, from anywhere on the base line, coupled with the amount of top-spin he uses produces problems for numerous players. He has shown versatility in returning difficult shots to his backhand with various methods, whether by slice, topspin angles, or heavy power. He is also capable of hitting flat returns on high top-spin shots directed to that wing, a shot most single-handed backhand players struggle with.
He has also been praised for his variety and all-court play, and is solid at all parts of the court. His volleys are consistent and he very actively seeks to end points at the net, which complements his baseline ability to push players to the back of the court, buying him time to come up. He is also very crafty, often using drop-shots and fakes to misdirect opponents. He also performs many harder, rarer shots in today's game such as the drive volley, half-volley and occasionally serve-and-volleys. He also plays well on all surfaces, his baseline game and long, winding groundstrokes allow him to do well on clay while his more aggressive, serve-and-volley style gives him an edge on grass courts and the combination of both work well on hard courts. This is shown in his almost equal success on all surfaces, having reached at least the fourth round of all grand slam tournaments on multiple occasions.
Despite his strengths, Gasquet also has a few prominent weaknesses, which could be argued are entirely responsible for his lack of success in big tournaments and against top 10 opponents. His first weakness is despite his strength and aggressive potential, he sometimes does not actively seek out winners from his groundstrokes and mainly waits for his opponent to show signs of aggression before replying with his own. He also generally plays far behind the baseline, which supports the slow buildup on his ground-strokes, but leaves him susceptible to drop-shots and angled shots. This aspect of his game in particular has been lamented by his fans around the globe, who see him as being too set in his ways to change this aspect of his approach to the detriment of his results against the best players in the world, who can easily take advantage of it. Indeed his baseline groundstrokes have previously been characterised as toothless.His serve is also not especially strong, being known more for spin rather than speed.
Gasquet has launched the Richard Gasquet Foundation which aims to use sport as a means to bring underprivileged children back to health, and help them build a future. He is a big rugby fan, supporting his hometown team Béziers. He has stated in an interview that if he were not a tennis player he would probably be a rugby player. He is also a fan of football/soccer and supports his local team Montpellier, as well as Paris St-Germain. He has described basketball player Tony Parker, who plays in the NBA, as a very good and genuine friend. He has stated that his favourite cuisine is Italian. Wikipedia
Gasquet is an all-court player, known for his complete and elegant game as well as his single-handed backhand, which is considered to be one of the best ever. His forehand is his weaker wing, and is generally less consistent and slower. For his forehand, Gasquet uses a semi-western to Eastern grip with an unusually long take-back. However, upon contact, he hits the ball flat with an eastern grip while flicking his wrist, seemingly combining flat and topspin strokes together. It is due to this that his forehand is sometimes considered "awkward" and less effective.
Gasquest's single-handed backhand is considered one of the most graceful, efficient and effective backhands ever. Like his forehand, he winds up his backhand very far backwards, his left hand supporting the take-back. Upon release, he flicks his wrist as well and produces a large follow-through and finish, executing one of the most deadly top-spin single-handed backhands. His backhand is known for its consistency, speed and accuracy, and has been acclaimed by many past players and commentators such as Robbie Koenig, John McEnroe and Brad Gilbert. His ability to create pace and angles with it, from anywhere on the base line, coupled with the amount of top-spin he uses produces problems for numerous players. He has shown versatility in returning difficult shots to his backhand with various methods, whether by slice, topspin angles, or heavy power. He is also capable of hitting flat returns on high top-spin shots directed to that wing, a shot most single-handed backhand players struggle with.
He has also been praised for his variety and all-court play, and is solid at all parts of the court. His volleys are consistent and he very actively seeks to end points at the net, which complements his baseline ability to push players to the back of the court, buying him time to come up. He is also very crafty, often using drop-shots and fakes to misdirect opponents. He also performs many harder, rarer shots in today's game such as the drive volley, half-volley and occasionally serve-and-volleys. He also plays well on all surfaces, his baseline game and long, winding groundstrokes allow him to do well on clay while his more aggressive, serve-and-volley style gives him an edge on grass courts and the combination of both work well on hard courts. This is shown in his almost equal success on all surfaces, having reached at least the fourth round of all grand slam tournaments on multiple occasions.
Despite his strengths, Gasquet also has a few prominent weaknesses, which could be argued are entirely responsible for his lack of success in big tournaments and against top 10 opponents. His first weakness is despite his strength and aggressive potential, he sometimes does not actively seek out winners from his groundstrokes and mainly waits for his opponent to show signs of aggression before replying with his own. He also generally plays far behind the baseline, which supports the slow buildup on his ground-strokes, but leaves him susceptible to drop-shots and angled shots. This aspect of his game in particular has been lamented by his fans around the globe, who see him as being too set in his ways to change this aspect of his approach to the detriment of his results against the best players in the world, who can easily take advantage of it. Indeed his baseline groundstrokes have previously been characterised as toothless.His serve is also not especially strong, being known more for spin rather than speed.
Gasquet has launched the Richard Gasquet Foundation which aims to use sport as a means to bring underprivileged children back to health, and help them build a future. He is a big rugby fan, supporting his hometown team Béziers. He has stated in an interview that if he were not a tennis player he would probably be a rugby player. He is also a fan of football/soccer and supports his local team Montpellier, as well as Paris St-Germain. He has described basketball player Tony Parker, who plays in the NBA, as a very good and genuine friend. He has stated that his favourite cuisine is Italian. Wikipedia
Richard Gasquet Age
June 18, 1986
Sun Sign
Gemini
Richard Gasquet Height
6 ft 1 in or 185 cm
Richard Gasquet Weight
78 kg or 172 lbs
Hair Color
Light Brown
Eye Color
Brown
Richard Gasquet Height, Richard Gasquet Weight, Richard Gasquet Age, Richard Gasquet Biography