Despite all the love we have for him, if we had been told a few years ago that, of the four Musketeers of French tennis, Richard Gasquet would be the one who would be in the most shape one week before the 2023 edition. of Roland-Garros, we would not have believed it. And yet, while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon have folded the saplings and Gaël Monfils has sunk into the bottom of the ATP rankings, our national Richard is painstakingly getting a second youth, quietly installed in the top 50 soon to be 37 years (he will have them on June 18). And if his defeat against Ugo Humbert at the Bordeaux Challenger on Sunday will earn him to pass behind his youngest compatriot, Gasquet will still have been the first Frenchman at the ATP in recent weeks.
He himself finds it hard to believe, as he told us a month ago on the sidelines of the Monte-Carlo tournament. “Two or three years ago, at a time when I was really not well, when I had some very disabling injuries, I never thought I would return to this level. I knew I still had enough to beat good players, but to win a tournament like I did in Auckland and come back as high in the standings, no, really not”. By winning in New Zealand against Camreon Norrie (12th in the world), #Richard2023 has also become the oldest French player to win a tournament on the ATP circuit, ahead of Fabrice Santoro and Gaël Monfils. In addition, with 16 victories on the clock (all in 250 tournaments, of course), Gasquet has consolidated his place on the podium of the most successful Frenchmen, behind Yannick Noah (23) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (18).
A few months ago when commenting Roger Federer’s retirement and the longevity of the handsome Swiss on the ATP circuit, the Biterrois laughed by explaining that, for him, he had to “call the SAMU” as soon as he chained two games in a row. And here he is today, chaining tournaments as if nothing had happened, without the slightest ambulance siren on the horizon. A feat which does not surprise the physical trainer Paul Quetin in the least, who sees in this return to form of Gasquet the sign of a passion still intact.
There’s something you always have to bear in mind when talking about Richard, and that’s part of the reason for his longevity, is that he’s a real fan of his sport, a mad lover of this game. He loves to play, all the time, everywhere, it’s his life. It was also the case for Jo, Gilles or Gaël, of course, but in my opinion Richard has something special in his relationship with tennis. »
“There is no reason to stop”
That’s exactly what he told us between two training sessions in Monaco. “Every day that passes I enjoy myself on a court, I think tennis H24, I breathe tennis. And age doesn’t matter in that, I still feel young. That’s also the secret, to stay on the circuit for so long you have to feel young, otherwise you’ll get a slap. And afterwards, the more you win, the more you want to play, the happier you are on the circuit, it’s a virtuous circle. There are bound to be times that are harder than others and it’s not always easy to find the mental strength to not give up, but I still manage to keep the motivation, I feel that the time is not yet come to stop. »
“The day he will say stop, and that he has always said, is when he feels that he is no longer capable of performing, explains Paul Quetin. But as long as his body is fine, like right now, and he leaves him alone with the injuries, he has no reason to stop. To prevent the mechanics from jamming and the body giving up, Gasquet has changed the way he prepares outside of games a lot in recent years. From now on, he shows great meticulousness in warming up but no longer pulls like a pig on the machine. Privileged witness of this training routine, in Paris, where Gasquet goes regularly in the year, Paul Quetin admires the professionalism of the player.
“What makes the difference is that he knows himself perfectly. I see him when he is at the CNE, he has training at 11 a.m. but he always arrives an hour and a half before, he does a lot of exercises to get started, at a lower intensity than a few years ago outside of the field but it is calculated, it is a hyper square warm-up, he analyzes. He will do the appropriate exercises so as not to injure himself, but there is no longer a high-intensity warm-up. On the other hand, when he is on the field, racquet in hand, there he gives everything, he does not try to save himself. The intensity he no longer puts in physical training, he no longer does bodybuilding, things like that, and he keeps everything for the field, regardless of the opponent. When he does sets with the youngsters, Lucas Van Asche, Gabriel Debru, he is on the job all the time. »
See Roland and spend some laps
“You have to find the right balance, not to do too much but to do it all the same, smiles the dean of tricolor tennis. You have to dose well, that is to say keep a high intensity in training, play the sets thoroughly but never do fifteen, twenty minutes too much. For the rest, Gasquet did not revolutionize the shmilblick. To hold on, you have to stick to what Mbappé calls “eating well, sleeping well”.
Gasquet: “There is no secret, when you want to stay at the top level at 37, you have to take care of your body, rest, take recovery periods, watch out for your diet, everything is important . When you’re 20, it’s easier, but the more the years pass, the more you have to be intelligent and rigorous. And if he admits to having “sometimes a little pleasure on the food”, so as not to “go totally crazy”, the winner in Aukland at the beginning of January forces himself to put aside his other passions outside of tennis. “I am rather old for tennis but I am still young on the scale of a lifetime, I tell myself that I would have plenty of time to have fun in golf or football after my career. That’s why I manage to make these sacrifices, the game is worth the candle. »
It remains to be seen what we can expect from him at Roland-Garros, he who recently explained to The Team struggle to win matches if they go beyond three sets, which was already his weakness when he was at the peak of his career. “He will always surprise us so we can hope that he does something to us at Roland, wants to believe Quetin. It will depend on his opponent, of course if he has to play a gravel specialist or a young player like Rune or Ruud, it will be difficult. But if he is lucky enough to have a slightly more lenient draw, he may well skip a few rounds. “Two victories and it would already be happiness: Richard has not seen a third round at Roland since 2018, and it was to get stuck with Rafa Nadal. At least one draw he’s sure to avoid this year.