Richard Gasquet
Richard Gasquet (18 June, 1986, Béziers) is a French tennis player.
In April, 2002, Gasquet made his debut on the ATP tour at the Tennis Masters Series tournament at Monte Carlo where he received a wild card into qualifying and became youngest player ever to qualify for a Tennis Masters event. At 15 years, 10 months, he defeated Argentina's Franco Squillari in the first round of that tournament to become the youngest player to win a tour-level main draw match since Tommy Ho at Rye Brook in 1988. He made his Grand Slam tournament debut at the 2002 French Open at the age of 15 years, 11 months, nine days (second-youngest player ever to compete in main draw) in Paris. Gasquet finished 2002 as No. 1 junior in the world and was named World Junior Champion, having won the junior titles at French Open and the US Open. He was also the youngest player to finish in year-end ATP top 200.
Gasquet finished 2003 as the youngest player to finish a year inside the ATP top 100.
In 2004, Gasquet reached his first ATP tournament final at Metz. He also won the mixed doubles trophy at the French Open, teaming with Tatiana Golovin.
In April, 2005, Gasquet reached the semifinals of the Masters Series tournament at Monte Carlo, handing world number one Roger Federer in the quarterfinals a shock defeat in the process. As a result, he became the youngest French player ever to defeat a world number one.
Gasquet used to cheer for Andre Agassi and even kept a picture of Agassi on his wall. Fresh off of a huge win over Roger Federer and having just demolished Paradorn Srichapan in straight sets, it must have been nerves that caused the rising teen to lose against Agassi 6-2 6-3 at Rome's Masters tennis tournment.
A month after he had reached the semifinal of the Monte Carlo Masters, he reached the final of another ATP Masters tournamant, the [Hamburg Masters]where he was defeated by Roger Federer.
Singles Finalist (2)
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