Appreciating Gasquet

[jimlosaltos]

Gasquet reaches 600 wins. Kudos.

Richard is candid (machine translation ""That's a lot, huh? I'm the worst to have so many. There are only monsters... You have to play for a long time at the top level. I didn't think I would do the same when I started. It's a big accomplishment."

Mainly posted this to include two photos:

Gasquet at 9 yo and 21 years of singleton glory:

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[jeffreycounts]

Wonderful! I would love to see how he hit that backhand as a 9 year old. The upper body coil and high takeback are in full effect as a kid!

[stroke]

Gasquet was, and still is, a great player. Unfortunately, he is about the same age as Nadal and Novak. He had a very bad record playing all 3 many times. Just a bad roll for him. If he were starting his career over now, I realty feel he would have would win at the very least a Major and maybe a couple of Masters 1000's.

[stroke]

It would be great to see Gasquet make one last deep run at Wimbledon. He has been knocked out of so many by the 3, so only one is left. He certainly has the all court game to make a deep run. Oddsmakers don't like his chances, 85 to 1.

[jimlosaltos]

It would be great to see Gasquet make one last deep run at Wimbledon. He has been knocked out of so many by the 3, so only one is left. He certainly has the all court game to make a deep run. Oddsmakers don't like his chances, 85 to 1.

One can hope. Tennis deities will have to line a few things up to help him out, but stranger things have happened.

[stroke]

Gasquet is 1-13 vs Djokovic, probably his best record vs the 3. A lot of scar tissue there, they knocked him out of A LOT of tournaments.

[stotty]

Gasquet last I looked was 3-50 down against the Big 3. No great shame as this is how it looks with most of Gasquet's generation.

Federer 19 to 2
Novak 13 to 1
Rafa 18 to 0

[arturohernandez]

I remember seeing him in one of the first matches against Fed. Incredible backhand. If only his serve and forehand had come close.

Then, he would have had a much better record against the Big 3. I just saw the Becker documentary on Apple TV+. Tiriac says Becker underachieved.

Given the stress and the competition, maybe Johnny Mac was right, “We all choke. Winners know how to handle choking better than losers.”

[jimlosaltos]

Gasquet last I looked was 3-50 down against the Big 3. No great shame as this is how it looks with most of Gasquet's generation.

Federer 19 to 2
Novak 13 to 1
Rafa 18 to 0

Ah, but Gasquet will always have his one win over Rafa! Teens, yes, but how many people in the world can say that? <g>

YT: https://youtu.be/QEiCEHyUbXg and https://youtu.be/KzKuv4j67aw

Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-t...98400K20130905

"“I saw on YouTube that video sometimes,” the Frenchman said. “People are talking about that video when I played against Rafa. On YouTube I can see I’m winning against him, so I don’t believe it sometimes.

“It was a match in Tarbes, one of the biggest tournaments for the younger children under 14. It’s good to win at under 14, but it is better to win as a pro.”

[stroke]

I saw some post on Instagram about Gasquet, who still holds the record winning a Masters 1000 match at age 15. In the short video, Gasquet, playing without the huge grip butt build up, his backhand looked exactly the same, but his forehand, very interestingly to me, looked much better technique wise at age 15 than what he ended up with.

[jimlosaltos]

I saw some post on Instagram about Gasquet, who still holds the record winning a Masters 1000 match at age 15. In the short video, Gasquet, playing without the huge grip butt build up, his backhand looked exactly the same, but his forehand, very interestingly to me, looked much better technique wise at age 15 than what he ended up with.

I'd forgotten that. Awesome achievement.

It is fascinating to see very young players and immediately recognize their strokes. Formed at such an early age.

I recall seeing a video of a very young Maria Sharapova and recognizing her forehand before I recognized her face, it was so different.