04/15/02
Gasquet Hits the Headlines in Monte-Carlo
http://www.masters-series.com/montecarlo/news/monday_bowers.asp

By Chris Bowers, Tennis Radio Network
It's not often you see a more impressive debut than Richard
Gasquet's at the Tennis Masters Monte-Carlo. It was easy to feel
we were watching a future French Open champion, if not world
No 1.

Gasquet, who won't be 16 until 18 June, became the youngest
player to compete in a Masters Series tournament when he came
through the qualifying tournament, and on the first day of the
third TMS of the year he promptly became the youngest player to
reach the second round when he beat Franco Squillari 7-6 3-6 7-5
in two hours 25 minutes.

The Frenchman - or should that be boy - played with remarkable
assurance, no apparent nerves, and an awareness of how to combat
a vastly more experienced opponent 11 years his senior that would
have been remarkable in any debutant but was particularly striking
in one so young.

After a superb first set which he won on a 7-5 tiebreak, he might
have succumbed to tiredness when he let a 40-15 lead at 3-4 in the
second set slip, allowing Squillari to level the match.

He might have succumbed to the blisters on his playing hand which
required treatment at 3-1 in the third set and assisted in
Squillari's recovery to lead 4-3. But he fought back to claim a
victory as much for character as talent, for maturity as much as
his flowing, relentless groundstrokes which were a pleasure to
watch.

Asked whether he was really only 15 by an incredulous media corps,
he replied: "Well I'm nearly 16." He said he benefited from the
support of a French crowd, and said he had plenty of experience
in long matches, so tiredness was never too much of a factor.

In the next round he faces either Marat Safin or Tommy Robredo,
who play on the Tuesday programme. "I'd prefer to play Safin,"
Gasquet said.

The tennis roadside is littered with unfulfilled careers which
never quite justified the teenage promise, and Gasquet still has
a lot to prove, but to achieve this much, more than two months
off his 16th birthday, suggests a player who is heading right
for the top.

Elsewhere the biggest casualty was the third seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov,
who stayed true to his tradition of having a very slow start to
the claycourt season with a 6-1 6-2 defeat to Markus Hipfl.

Earlier the 14th seed Thomas Enqvist was crushed by Juan Ignacio
Chela, 6-1 6-1.