PARIS – Richard Gasquet’s timing on his exquisite one-handed backhand was often perfection, but his timing in the bigger picture was not nearly so ideal.
In a different era, he might have won a major or two and been the champion that some experts in France expected him to be after he dominated the junior ranks and then defeated world No. 1 Roger Federer in their first meeting at age 18 in Monte Carlo. Gasquet finished off that big upset with a cocksure backhand passing shot down the line that was brimming with pace and potential.
But when “the little Mozart” was all grown up, he ended up in the wrong era, a gilded one ruled by the Big Three of Federer, Novak Djokovic and, most poignantly for Gasquet, his friend and former junior rival Rafael Nadal.
Born 15 days apart, they were both genuine prodigies who won their first matches on the main ATP Tour at age 15. They were understandably compared from an early age. Gasquet beat Nadal at Les Petits As, the prestigious French junior tournament open to the world’s best players under 14. Gasquet prevailed in their first professional match in the round of 16 of a challenger in the charming French seaside town of St. Jean de Luz in 2003: a duel Nadal was unable to finish because of an injury.
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