by Pete Bodo
If you're a die-hard Richard Gasquet fan - that is, if you still buy into all that "Baby Federer" stuff, remain bowled over by that ornate one-handed backhand, or simply enjoy showering your affection on someone truly undeserving, like that cad of a boyfriend who always let you down (I know it's your birthday, but I told the guys I'd go to the game with them!) - the news that Gasquet been suspended for testing positive for cocaine should have come as no great surprise.This guy has always been determined to leave no stone unturned in his quest to sabotage himself.
It's pretty much been that way since Ree-shard first exploded on the scene, taking "Adult Federer" out in a high-profile clash in Monte Carlo in 2005. Surely you remember Ree-shard back then - a long-haired stripling of 20, with strikingly sloped shoulders and a habit of coiling up to hit his backhand like a hammer-thrower getting ready to unload. Since then, Gasquet has faithfully mined all the meaning out of the word "unpredictable" and moved on, seemingly to give us a new and richer understanding of the word, "unreliable."
The wag in me wants to write that Gasquet has been about as trustworthy as that long-forgotten coke head pal of yours, but let's remember that Gasquet claims he's innocent. He'll get his chance to prove it at a hearing sometime in the medium-future (the ITF will convene a panel to hear his case, hopefully but not necessarily within 60 days). So Gasquet is out of commission for the French Open, and that makes the wag in me say, Hmmmm, maybe Richard planned it this way. . .
After all, Gasquet has been to the third round at Roland Garros only once (2005), and he's carrying on a grand tradition of French players of either gender going wobbly in the knees when they sense that the French public expects something of them. Last year, Gasquet found a straightforward way to push back against the pressure: he claimed injury and skipped Roland Garros altogether. Whatever ailed him did not prevent Gasquet from playing a full menu of warm-up clay events (outside of French borders, of course), or from jumping back into the fray on the grass courts of Queens Club immediately after Rafael Nadal won Roland Garros for the 54th consecutive time (okay, I exaggerate). Gasquet was so happy to get the French portion of the tour over that he celebrated with a quarterfinal at Queens..
A few weeks later at Wimbledon, Scotsman Andy Murray did his best Gasquet-in-Paris impersonation, going down by two sets and a service break with his countrymen looking on, mortified. But remember, Murray was playing Ree-shard, so turning it around was not the Herculean task it might have seemed. Gasquet served for the match, Murray broke him, and the next thing you know, Murray is flexing his muscles on television as he closes out the five-setter - thereby postponing the customary national heartbreak for 48 hours. Just in case you thought Gasquet got it out of his system at Wimbledon, he lost a similar match at the first Grand Slam event of '09, winning the first two sets before losing to Fernando Gonzalez, 12-10 in the fifth. It's the kind of thing that can lead you to drink, or worse. . .
Gasquet has demonstrated that his talent for producing drama outweighs his ability to produce titles. And it's curious that someone who so often seems to lack heart can be so expert at breaking hearts. Remember the Davis Cup quarterfinal tie against the USA in Winston-Salem, N.C., last year? The host team quickly racked up two singles wins, but the French found a way to beat Bob and Mike Bryan to take the doubles.
In a hole but still alive, French captain Guy Forget decided to shoot the moon and insert Richard Gasquet to battle Andy Roddick in the first of the reverse singles. There was just one problem: Gasquet didn't really feel like playing. If you want to see Forget's reaction to Gasquet's decision, just read Bonnie Ford's excellent eyewitness description of the incidenthere. Ultimately, Forget had to stick with Paul-Henri Mathieu, and the U.S. closed out the tie with no trouble.
All these incidents make you wonder what went wrong, given that Gasquet was the undisputed junior world champion in 2002 (he won Roland Garros and the U.S. Open that year). He isn't the first player who failed to back up his junior promise on the main tour; that story has been re-told, many times. But in most cases (think Donald Young), there are clear, game and/or physically-based reasons that explain why a guy or girl struggles. Gasquet has none of the the shortcomings that lay other gifted juniors low (lack of power, poor movement, an attack-able weakness); he's been ranked as high as no. 8 and he's bagged 5 titles in 6 ATP tour finals. He doesn't seem burned out as much as he appears lost and incapable of mustering a sufficiently high-degree of desire. Or maybe he's suffering from a loss of faith in his chosen profession. Whatever the cause, Gasquet is the moth to tennis's flame.
Now Gasquet probably will have a significant period of time to figure out what exactly he wants out of life, or out of his tennis. This may not be a bad thing at all, given that he's talented enough to sleepwalk through a career, haul in a ton of money, and wake up at age 30, wondering why he was never a factor at major events. Maybe a suspension will do the guy good. And he doesn't have to worry about alienating his peers, because they don't view him as a pariah, the way they might a player caught using performance enhancing drugs. Cocaine is banned mostly because of the message the Lords of Tennis (and most other sports) want to convey and the image they wish to project. Coke isn't classed as a performance-enhancing drug because it's a short term stimulant, and once its effects wear off the user is somewhat debilitated - not exactly the state in which you wish to find yourself midway through the third-set in a match at Roland Garros.
For that reason, the ITF changed its cocaine policy and now distinguishes between players who come up positive in out-of-competition testing (testers can summon players to submit urine samples anytime, anywhere) and those who test positive during an event. You remember the Martina Hingis case: she tested positive after losing a match at Wimbledon in 2007 and was slapped with a two-year suspension, effectively driving her into a second premature retirement. Gasquet tested positive at the Sony-Ericsson Open, where he withdrew from the draw (citing a bad shoulder) after he was tested but before he hit a ball. I assume that the ITF will treat Gasquet's test as an in-competition case.
