Bill Simons and Vinay Venkatesh
PARIS
We don’t know how many times at the French crowd serenaded their hero Richard Gasquet with their adoring chant, “Wree-chard! Wree-chard!”
But we know that, appropriately enough, the guy has the same initials as France’s beloved tennis palace, Roland Garros; that he speaks French faster than any other person we know, and for about two decades one of our favorite moments in French Open history came when the Philippe Chatrier stadium sang a rousing version (with a perfect crescendo) of the world’s most passionate national anthem, Le Marseilles.
And, yes, for two decades, the Little Mozart of the ATP was at the forefront of tennis and always a pleasure to watch.
Today, at 38, Gasquet’s face has deep lines. He no longer can explode out of the corners and we won’t comment on his hairline. Still his backhand was truly astounding, a wonder. And his slices and little volleys amaze. “How does one person contain that much feel?” asked Gigi Salmon. “He seems to be going in slow motion,” added Simon Cambers.
But today at 4:16 PM, against the No. 1 Jannik Sinner, Richard the Great hit one last backhand long and his 23-year career was over. Two years ago, the French gave a rousing farewell to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Last year, it was Alize Cornet’s turn. Today many of France’s best players – Monfils, Tsonga, Gilles Simon, Nicolas Mahut – gathered to honor their comrade.
When Inside Tennis asked him what he loved most about the sport he plays, Gasquet replied, “Just to play tennis. I really love it. Even when I was a child, I loved it. Of course, when you can play in front of a packed house it’s amazing…It was an amazing feeling to face these great players in great arenas. I was lucky to play on the circuit for a long time. I have great memories. I’m retiring now. It’s a little bit weird – but you have to stop one day.”
Gasquet recalled how he had come to Roland Garros when he was eight or nine; how he dreamed of this day and this was the ideal way to leave. Welling up, he sighed, “This is what tennis gives us. This is only good-bye, not farewell, for tennis will remain with me until I die. Long live tennis – long live France.”
COMPARATIVE BACKHANDS 101: We won’t go into the best women’s one-handed backhands of all time, like Justine Henin’s picture perfect shot, and Steffi Graf’s wicked slices. And, way back when, Don Budge’s power stroke, Ken Rosewall’s wicked spins and Italian Nicola Pietrangeli’s classic shots drew accolades.
More recently, among the big names of the sport, Stefan Edberg had a gorgeous stroke, but Guga Kuerten’s one-hander was the best of his day. And Pete Sampras (who as a kid had a two-hander) had a mighty backhand, even when he was off balance.
For decades, we saw the beauty and the variety of Federer’s one-hander. His slice defused the power of the mightiest serves – but some could attack it. Grigor Dimitrov, Dennis Shapovalov and Dominic Thiem’s backhands are sublime. Wawrinka’s has great power.
But Gasquet’s one-hander, in its way, stands apart. With his powerful wrist and total confidence, he could hit with heavy topspin, change directions of the ball with ease and strike backhand winners from any corner of the court.
THE GATHERING OF THE ONE-HANDED TRIBE: The flowing, free-form, one-handed backhand is not that common these days. Some suggest it’s an endangered species. But it’s the most beautiful shot in the game. And in the past five days, four of the all-time great practitioners of the stroke were in Paris. Unfortunately, all were retired, or nearing retirement.
Roger Federer, whose backhand has inspired millions, was on hand to say goodbye to Rafa. Today Richard Gasquet fell to Jannik Sinner in the last match of his illustrious career. The 34-year-old Bulgarian, Grigor Dimitrov, who doesn’t hesitate to give deep-dive analyses of his lovely backhand, again withdrew from a Slam match with an injury.
Stan Wawrinka again his blasted barrel chest backhand, but lost in his first-round match to the Brit Jacob Fearnley.
Now the greatest hope for lovers of that fading beauty, the one-handed backhand, are the No. 3 seed, the 6′ 6″ Alexander Zverev and the No. 8 seed, Italian Lorenzo Musetti., who are through to the third round.
MAMAS DON’T LET YOUR DAUGHTERS GROW UP TO BE TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS: Last year, the vastly popular Ons Jabeur was highly critical of the French Open not putting women’s matches on at night in prime time. This year, Iga Swiatek said that women would not like to play that late and she didn’t really care about the issue.
But Jabeur again passionately spoke her truth. She insisted, “It’s still sad that we are seeing this. I keep standing by my words. In Europe, it’s unfortunate for women’s sports – not [just] for tennis, but in general. I hope whoever is making the decision doesn’t have daughters, because I don’t think they would treat their daughters like this.”
“You know, it’s a bit ironic. They don’t show women’s tennis, and then they say, ‘Yeah, but mostly they watch men.’ Of course they watch men more – because you show men more. It’s a shame from the Federation, a shame from Amazon Prime. A lot of great [women] players, deserve to be there.
“One of the matches was Naomi and Paula. It was such an unbelievable match. Like last year, Iga and Naomi should have been [playing at night].”
A DUCK, A DEMON, A DOWN UNDER DISASTER: After Kazak Alexander Bublik beat Aussies James Duckworth and Alex DeMinaur, Courtney Walsh complained, “First he beat the duck, and now he’s beaten the demon. He’s tearing the heart out of Australia.”
ITALIANS MARCH ON: After Jasmine Paolini downed Ajla Tomljanovic and the unsung qualifier, No. 167, Matteo Gigante scored one of the biggest upsets of the tourney by beating former French finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas. Radio Roland Garros noted, “The Italians just keep on coming.”
No kidding. Paolini is the No. 4 woman, Sinner is the No. 1 man, Lorenzo Musetti is No. 7 and there are eight Italian men in the top 80.
YOU SAY IGA, AND I SAY IVA – THE ONE SENTENCE MATCH ANALYSIS THAT WOULDN’T END: Many came out Wednesday to see Iga – that would be the four-time Paris champ Iga Swiatek, who demolished Emma Raducanu.
In contrast, I wanted to see Iva – LA phenom Iva Jovic, who is just 17 and has risen to No. 129. So I went out before sunset, through Roland Garros’ garden-like walkway, to one of the world’s better arenas, Court Simmone-Mathieu, to take in what proved to be a modest, workmanlike victory by the favorite.
At least I came away with one of the longest, most rambling one-sentence match descriptions you’ll encounter for a while. It went like this.
In golden light under wispy clouds, on a velvety orange carpet, with still, green trees on the horizon, at one of the world’s most enchanting courts, as musical sirens rang in the distance, the young pride of LA’s celebrated Jack Kramer Club, Iva Jovic, gallantly tried to match the imposing force of one of the circuit’s mightiest power-meisters, the lanky, six-foot ex-Wimbledon champ, Elena Rybakina, who hit lasers to the corners and unleashed booming, well-placed serves en route to dismissing the brave but overmatched hopeful 6-3, 6-3 in 75 convincing minutes.
BTW: Rybakina will next face Jelena Ostapenka, in a battle between two former Slam champs.
AMERICANS IN PARIS: Seven American women and five men have advanced to the singles third round, only the second time since 1991 that 12 or more Americans have reached the third round at the French Open. The five US men reaching the third round is the most since six made it that far in 1996. Twenty-two Americans who advanced to the second round, the most Americans since 1994.
Thursday, Fresno native Ethan Quinn, a 21-year-old qualifier who won the 2023 NCAA singles championship, was the only American man in action and moved into the third round with a five-set win over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko. No. 2 Coco Gauff and No. 7 Madison Keyes advanced. No. 3 Jessica Pegula beat fellow American Ann Li, and Haley Baptiste moved into the third round. Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger lost.
