Gasquet And Simon Reach In The 2nd Round At Hassan II

Benoit Paire was beaten by Gilles Simon with the score 6-2, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (5) in an erratic all-French match. The match features 12 breaks of serve to get to the second round of the Grand Prix Hassan II on Monday.

Although Simon had no double-faulted four times and aces, he returned better and able to break the sixth-seeded Paire, seven times from eight chances. Simon, have who the clay-court tournament in the year 2008. That time the event took place in Casablanca. There he beat his countryman and that too for the fifth time in eight career meetings.
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Wawrinka Not Disappointed With Himself

Stanislas Wawrinka says that he is not overly disappointed with the fact that he couldn’t go all the way and win the Aegon Championships which took place at Queen’s Club, London.

Wawrinka had qualified for the semi final round in that tournament where he was up against Grigor Dimitrov, a player lower than him in the world rankings. He was supposed to be victorious in that match, but, it wasn’t to be. He suffered a loss and thus, lost the opportunity to go into the Wimbledon Championships with a title under his belt.

The Swiss, however, is pretty confident about his chances at Wimbledon. He is satisfied with his performance at the Queen’s club and he believes that he is in good enough form to be able to make a mark at the All England Club in a few days’ time.

In one of his interviews yesterday, Wawrinka said, “I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t be able to perform well there (at Wimbledon). I reckon I had a good preparation at the Queen’s club.”

Wawrinka has won two big tournaments this year. The first (Australian Open) was obviously very big because it was the first Grand Slam title of his career, while, the other one (Monte Carlo Masters) was fairly big as well.

When asked which of these two achievements he considers bigger, Wawrinka said, “Well, it’s hard to pick. The Australian Open was a slam title, but, in the Monte Carlo Masters, I defeated Roger to become the Champion and I did that on clay court. So, for me, both of them are up there. I can’t choose.”

Wawrinka is presently top ranked Swiss player in the world. He is ahead of the legend Roger Federer in the world rankings.

Li Na Believes Age Helps

Li Na doesn’t agree to those people who believe that the players who are more than 30 years of age can’t keep winning top tournaments regularly. According to the former French Open Champion, age actually helps people become a better player. As older you get, that much more experience you gain and thus, you can control your potential much better.

Talking to a magazine a couple of days back, Li said, “A lot of people think that the performance of a player gets deteriorated as he/she crosses 30 years of age, but, that, according to me, is not true at all. If anything, increasing age actually helps you take your performance up to another level because with the age, you become more and more experienced.”

Li is presently 32 year old. She had turned professional way back in 1999. In the earlier years of her career, she couldn’t achieve that much success, but, after growing older and getting close to 30, she started lifting trophies on a regular basis. In the last 3 years, she has won a couple of slam singles title. So, in her case, the increment in the age has been beneficial and thus, there is a point in what she is saying.

And, it’s not only Li who has become better after getting older. Serena Williams’ case has been the same. She has also gone from strength to strength with each passing year and currently, at about 32, she is an absolute legend.

In this year’s French Open though, Li’s performance was very, very ordinary as she lost her very first match in the tournament. That was highly unexpected after her glory in Australia earlier in the year. She would be eager to make a grand comeback in Wimbledon.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

The brand of tennis that Richard Gasquet had played in the latter half of the last season, the expectations were high from him at the start of this season.

The experts were of the opinion that the Frenchman had finally developed himself as a player and 2014 might turn out to be the year in which he would make his way into the top 3, but, so far, Gasquet has disappointed everybody. Almost one fourth of the ongoing season is already over and he has not won any title so far.

Till this point of time last year, Gasquet had a couple of trophies under his belt.

In total, Gasquet has taken part in four events this year and barring Open Sud de France where he made it to the final, he has suffered an early exit in all the other tournaments and that’s something which was unexpected from him.

However, still, a good number of matches are to be played this season. So, Gasquet can put things in place for himself, but, he needs drastic improvement in his form.

Gasquet is currently in Indian Wells to feature in the BNP Paribas Open which is probably the most prestigious event after the Grand Slams. He will play his first match in that tournament tomorrow against Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.

This will be the third time that Gasquet and Gabashvili will face each other. On the previous two occasions, the Russian had ended up losing and he would not want that to happen third time in a row.

If Gasquet gets knocked out early from the BNP Paribas Open as well, he would probably lose his place in top 10 in the ATP rankings.

Currently, Gasquet is the no. 9 player in the world.

NEW COACH

Richard Gasquet has appointed the former Spanish player Sergi Bruguera as his new head coach. Bruguera will take over from Riccardo Piatti who parted ways with Gasquet a few weeks back due to personal reasons.

Bruguera was considered as a fine clay court player in his playing days. He won a couple of Grand Slams in his career and both of them were the French Open titles. He had become the champion at Roland Garros in consecutive seasons i.e. in 1993 and 1994.

According to the reports, Gasquet had been in Barcelona since the last few days trying to finalize things with Bruguera.

Bruguera will not take charge as Gasquet’s coach immediately. He will start working at some point of time in February next year and will try to make Gasquet ready primarily for the tournaments that will be played on the clay courts.

Sebastian Grosjean who is also one of the Gasquet’s coaches is reported to have played a big role in convincing Bruguera.

Meanwhile, a lot of people are quite surprised by the way Riccardo Piatti quit. It is believed that he was not happy with the amount of time that he had to spend away from his family and that’s why, he decided to leave his post.

The last season was quite good for Gasquet. He was consistent in the entire season and in the last Grand Slam of the year i.e. in the US Open, he made it to the final 4 before getting beaten by the eventual champion Rafael Nadal. That was his best performance in the Grand Slams in the last few years. When the season finished, he was in the top 10 in the world rankings.  He would like to keep going in the same manner in the upcoming season as well.

GASQUET FACES NADAL

Richard Gasquet is set to face Rafael Nadal in the semi final of the ongoing US Open. He won a thriller against David Ferrer yesterday and made it to the final 4 for the first time at Flushing Meadows.

The Frenchman has never managed to get better of Nadal in his professional career. There have been 10 matches played between these two players thus far and Nadal has come out victorious on every occasion.

But, way back in 1999, when these two players were just 13 years old, they had taken part in a junior event at Tarbes and Gasquet had actually beaten the Spanish no. 1 in that tournament. A video which consists of some portions of that match is still on you Tube.

When asked about that match, Gasquet said, “It’s on you Tube and I have viewed it a few times. It feels nice every time I watch it.”

“Although, Rafa had lost that match, but, the way he had fought was quite impressive. I remember telling my dad at the end of that match that this guy is a real fighter.”

“He is probably one of the best of all-times. It’s great to defeat him at junior level, but, it would be better if I manage to secure a victory against him at this level too.”

“I will have a lot of opportunities to do that in the future. We both are 27 years of age only at the moment.”

When Nadal was asked if he remembers that match, the Spaniard said, “Yes I do. I had been beaten by 6-4 in the last set.”

“It was a big tournament for the junior players. Everyone was trying to make his mark and I must say that Richard was absolutely fantastic on that particular day.”