(Tennis news) Richard Gasquet is playing his 20th year as a professional on tour and has been the flag bearer for France for a long time now. Gasquet is currently playing at Marseille and is into the second round where he will face Andrey Rublev, the Frenchmen has 566 career victories so far and is the only from France who has more than 530 victories.

The 35 year old has won 15 titles with the last one coming in 2018 when he defeated fellow mate Jeremy Chardy in the Libema Open. Since then he has failed to win a title, last year the veteran had a chance to end the drought at Umag but lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final. Gasquet’s ranking has had an impact because of his recent form, he is currently ranked 76 after starting the year at 87 which was his lowest since 2005. In the past 12 months, the right hander has had a decline in the rankings and it became worse in the last 5 months.

The former world number 7 is known to possess one of the best backhands of all time. His single handed backhand is powerful and still has no match on tour. Gasquet's forehand has been questioned at times for being slower and less effective as compared to his backhand. Although his game does not involve risk taking, he waits for a long time to take chances and in the current courts where the balls are fast it is not a very successful strategy. It can be a positive sign if a player can use his athletic strength but at this age the legs would not support it but power can still be used to beat younger players or even serve and volleys.

Gasquet is known to change his grip after every change of ends due to excessive sweating from his hands as the players sometimes play in extremely humid conditions which adds to his problem but the 15 time tour winner in a video put together the grip in 8 seconds to show how comfortable he was with the routine. 

Gasquet had played in few challenger events last year in addition to the tour. Although he did not find much success there, on tour the French player recorded three quarter final appearances and one runner up trophy. The 2007 Kingfisher Airlines Open winner started last season ranked 48 but slipped over 40 places and now will try to stay in the top 100. He can catch up on the rankings in the next few months as it will be a mix of hardcourt and clay events. Although the 6 foot player is not as fast as he used to be, his performances on clay can give him a chance to redeem himself.

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