Veteran French tennis player Gasquet to retire after French Open

Once known as the “little Mozart of French tennis,” Richard Gasquet is set to end his career without a major to his name.

At 38, the French player renowned for his exceptional one-handed backhand told L'Equipe newspaper Thursday that he will end his career after the French Open in front of his home fans.

"I’ll be stopping at Roland Garros next year," Gasquet said. “I think this is the best time for me to do it. It’s the best tournament to do it. It’s wonderful, and we’re lucky as Frenchmen to be able to retire in such unbelievable places. The end is always complicated, as all the former great players have often told me. You never know when, how, where. As far as I'm concerned, it was obvious.”

Gasquet, who reached a career-best ranking of No. 7 back in 2007, was once regarded as a potential Grand Slam winner but could never get past the semifinals at any major.

Gasquet reached the Wimbledon semifinals twice and was also a semifinalist at the U.S Open. He claimed 16 Tour titles, most recently last year in Auckland, and was a member of the France team that won the 2017 Davis Cup.

Following in the footsteps of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon, he is the third member of a gifted generation of French players that emerged nearly 20 years ago — which also includes Gaël Monfils— to call it quits.

Gasquet, who has dropped to the No. 133 spot, said he would never have imagined playing for so long after starting when he was 3 years old with his father, Francis, who ran a tennis club.

“I play against 18-19 year olds, which is weird,” he said “”Nineteen years younger sounds crazy. Very few players make it to 38."

Gasquet, who has played 1,005 matches since he turned professional, won his Tour debut match at 16 at the Monte-Carlo Masters back in 2002. A few years earlier, when he was just nine years old, Gasquet was on the cover of Tennis Magazine, which asked in a headline: “The champion that France is waiting for?”

When he turned pro, Gasquet was compared to another emerging player, Rafael Nadal.

But as his Spanish rival established himself as one of the all-time greats, Gasquet, who never beat Nadal in 18 matches on the main tour, could not live up to the great expectations that had been placed on his shoulders.

"It’s wonderful to have been compared, for a little while, to Rafael Nadal, one of the greatest sportsmen in history," Gasquet wrote in his memoirs. “Deep down, I take it as a huge compliment. But how much it hurt me!”

Nadal’s shadow remained to the end. A few hours after Gasquet announced his retirement, it was Nadal’s turn to announce his departure from tennis.

Gasquet said he plans to start studying at a management school and would like to train young players.

“I’ve had a great career as a player, and now I need to shape the one after that,” Gasquet said.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis