04/16/02
Gasquet in Good Company
http://www.masters-series.com/montecarlo/news/gasquet2.asp

Richard Gasquet's sensational first round win at the Tennis
Masters Monte Carlo has been the talk of the tournament. At
just 15 years and 10 months of age, Gasquet became the youngest
winner on the ATP circuit since Tommy Ho defeated Matt Anger
at Rye Brook in 1988 aged 15 years, 2 months.

With talk already of Gasquet becoming a future No. 1, a look
at the history books shows that he already is in good company.

Michael Chang became the youngest player ever to win a match at
the US Open in 1987 when he defeated Paul McNamee at the age of
15 years, 6 months. Less than two years later, the American
became the youngest player to win a Grand Slam title when he
overcame Stefan Edberg in the final at Roland Garros. Having
gone on to win 34 titles, Chang also finished a career-high
No. 2 in the world in 1996.

Andre Agassi, who currently owns seven Grand Slam titles and a
record 13 Tennis Masters Series shields, won his first career
match at the age of 15 years, 9 months when he defeated John
Austin in the first round at La Quinta in 1986. Having first
reached No. 1 in 1995, Agassi finished at the helm in 1999 and
proved that at the age of 31, he can still win major titles
after claiming his fifth Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami last month.

Another former No. 1 Mats Wilander claimed his first top-level
scalp at 15 years and 10 months of age when he defeated Jan
Kallqvist in the first round in Bastad in 1980. The Swede,
who went on to win seven Grand Slam titles of his own, captured
three of the four in 1988 with Wimbledon the only one missing
from his collection.

There also have been some memorable 16-year-olds making their
presence felt on the ATP circuit over the years. Boris Becker
and Pat Cash - both of whom went on to win Wimbledon - won
their first matches at the ages of 16 years, 4 months, while
Pete Sampras was two months older when he defeated Ramesh
Krishnan in Indian Wells.

Lleyton Hewitt also burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old in
Adelaide in 1998, with Andrei Medvedev, Todd Woodbridge and
Fabrice Santoro also falling into that bracket.