tennisnet.com ATP › Grand Slam › Australian Open

Australian Open: Richard Gasquet must also fit

The bad luck for injuries never ends for the Frenchman Richard Gasquet: The 33-year-old has been suffering from a knee injury since October 2019 and, after the cancellations for Doha and the Kooyong Classic, must now also pass at the Australian Open.

by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Jan 15, 2020, 07:58 am

Wer gewinnt? Tippt jetzt!
Richard Gasquet has to cancel for the Australian Open
© Getty Images
Richard Gasquet has to cancel for the Australian Open

Richard Gasquet is a perennial favorite. The man with the irresistible one-handed backhand has been a professional for an incredible 18 years and has won 15 titles on the ATP tour in his long career. The 33-year-old will be reluctant to remember the 2019 season, as it was a year with many negative highlights of his career.

The start of the 2019 season was anything but on schedule. As this year, Gasquet had to cancel the Australian Open and underwent a groin operation, which was successful. The Frenchman made his comeback in May at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid. There followed mixed months, in which only the semi-finals in Cincinnati represented a small glimmer of hope. The fact that he had to end 2019 after the tournament in Basel at the end of October is symptomatic of the messed up season of the 33-year-old. The bitter consequence: Gasquet slipped out of the top 60 in the world for the first time since 2004.

Australian Open without a gasquet is an absolute exception

In 2020 everything should be better for the seasoned, but now Gaquet has to put the next damper right at the beginning of the season. After the cancellations for the tournament in Doha and the exhibition Kooyong Classic, Richard Gasquet - as in the previous year - had to cancel his start at the first Grand Slam of the year. The last two years have thus been an exception in the tennis circuit of the recent past: Richard Gasquet was at the Australian Open 14 times between 2003 and 2018, only once did the Grand Slam go without his participation. In his previous appearances, Gasquet has made it into the round of 16 four times; when he last competed in 2018, he was beaten by Roger Federer in round three.

The list of prominent cancellations for the Australian Open will not become any shorter. After Juan Martín Del Potro, Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori, the former number seven in the world, Richard Gasquet, will also be missing from the Australian Open starting on January 20.

by Michael Rothschädl

Wednesday
Jan 15, 2020, 10:00 am
last edit: Jan 15, 2020, 07:58 am