Frenchman Gasquet: Next tennis star announces farewell

Richard Gasquet has announced the end of his career. However, he still wants to take part in one tournament: the athlete from southern France said goodbye in his home country.

One more French Open next summer – then it’s over: three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist Richard Gasquet has announced the end of his 23-year-long professional career. “It’s beautiful and you’re lucky as a Frenchman to be able to stop in such an incredible place,” Gasquet told the sports newspaper L’Equipe.

The 38-year-old’s greatest successes with the elegant, one-handed backhand were some time ago. In 2007, when he climbed to seventh place in the world rankings, he reached a major semi-final at Wimbledon for the first time, and in 2015 Gasquet achieved it again. In between, he also made it to the last four in New York in 2013. Gasquet has won 16 tournaments in his career so far.

By next summer, the current world rankings number 133. There’s still time to further improve his balance sheet, and then he’ll have enough. “I started tennis when I was three years old, that’s 36 years of training, every day!” said Gasquet: “I can’t give more, it can’t go on.”