Richard Gasquet: A Popular European Open Attraction, Win Or Lose

Richard Gasquet, European Open, Antwerp
Richard Gasquet (photo: European Open/Belga)

ANTWERP/WASHINGTON, October 14, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)

Overshadowed by last Thursday’s major announcement of Rafael Nadal‘s pending retirement from professional tennis came news via an interview with French sports daily L’Equipe that 38-year-old Frenchman Richard Gasquet, currently ranked 135th, will retire after the 2025 French Open.

A native of Béziers, in southern France, Gasquet now resides in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and has been a popular European Open attraction throughout the nine-year history of the Belgian tennis event in Antwerp, Belgium. He won the 2016 title in the debut of the ATP 250 indoor hard-court tournament and has been back to compete inside Lotto Arena many times since, where his beautiful and picturesque one-fisted backhand strokes are always crowd pleasers.

Gasquet, one of five Frenchmen in the 28-player main draw, received a wild card entry into this year’s event and is the oldest competitor.

Gasquet, who turned pro in 2002 and last month won a Challenger event in Cassis, France, has divided his time this season between the ATP Tour and toiling on the Challenger Circuit. Monday evening, the former World No. 7 was featured on Center Court in Lotto Arena against 25-year-old No. 6 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina, who is currently ranked No. 37. The difference in age and ranking was evident throughout their first-round match — but so was Gasquet’s desire to compete, too.

In just his 15th tour-level match of the season, Gasquet went down to defeat, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in an hour and 48 minutes in his final European Open appearance. He finished with eight aces and 21 overall winners but also made 24 unforced errors. His serve was broken three times by Etcheverry, who hit 32 winners and outpointed Gasquet 77-65. The loss dropped Gasquet’s lifetime win-loss record to 605-401. He has the third-most victories among active players behind Novak Djokovic and Nadal.

Afterward, Gasquet was recognized during an on-court ceremony by Dick Norman, the longtime European Open tournament director, who gave the Frenchman a warm embrace.

“I think that it is the best moment for me to do it,” Gasquet said of his upcoming retirement plans in the L’Equipe interview. “It is the best tournament to do it. It’s magnificent, we have the chance being French to be able to stop in these kind of incredible places. An end, it’s always complicated, all the former great players always told me it’s not easy to announce. You never know when, how, where. Here, in any case, it is obvious.”

Gasquet has won 16 ATP Tour titles, qualified at the Nitto ATP Finals in 2007 and 2013, and reached ATP Masters 1000 finals at Hamburg in 2005 and at Toronto twice, in 2006 and 2012.

Around the European Open

No. 7 seed Mariano Navone of Argentina, ranked 43rd, began main draw action on Center Court against No. 88 Thiago Monteiro of Brazil. He saved two match points during a third-set tie-break and advanced with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6) victory in two hours and 41 minutes in his indoor debut.

Navone hit 10 aces, struck 20 winners overall and outpointed Monteiro 109-98. Next, the 43rd-ranked Argentine will play either 336th-ranked Russian qualifier Alexey Vatutin or No. 77 Hugo Gaston of France, who play Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in a tussle of unseeded players on Court 1, No. 54 Robert Carballes Baena of Spain needed just 73 minutes to defeat No. 81 Dominik Koepfer of Germany, 6-4, 6-0. Next, the Spaniard will face World No. 9 and top seed Alex de Minaur of Australia.

Finally, 164th-ranked Belgian wild card Rafael Collignon, who was featured Monday night in a match on Stadium Court against No. 93 Marton Fucsovics of Hungary, lost 6-2, 6-0 in his European Open debut. He fell victim to 12 double faults and 24 unforced errors. Fucsovics, who outpointed the 22-year-old Belgian 58-27 during the 62-minute first-round match, will play No. 3 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada in the second round.

Also, doubles action began with Austrian pair Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler winning their first-round match and advancing to the quarterfinals over Constantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens of Germany, 7-6 (4), 7-5.

Seyboth Wild, Van Assche advance for qualifying draw

No. 2 seed Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil and No. 3 seed Luca Van Assche of France were among four qualifiers who advanced to the main draw on Monday.

The 80th-ranked Seyboth Wild defeated No. 216 Mark Lajal of Estonia, 6-2, 6-3, while the 119th-ranked Van Assche eliminated No. 378 Alex Marti Pujolras of Spain, 6-0, 6-4. Seyboth Wild will face No. 48 Giovanni Mepetshi Perricard in the first round of the main draw, while van Assche will oppose No. 60 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain.

Also advancing were: No. 336 Alexey Vatutin of Russia who beat No. 8 seed Manuel Guinard of France, ranked 268th, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5; and 869th-ranked Belgian wild card Gilles Arnaud Bailly, defeated No. 318 Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia, 7-6 (4), 6-1. Vatutin will play No. 77 Hugo Gaston of France in the first round of the main draw, while Bailly was drawn against No. 84 Daniel Altmaier of Germany.

On Sunday, No. 1 seed Yannick Hanfmann of Germany, ranked 86th, was upset by Vatutin, 6-4, 6-2, in the opening round of qualifying.

Bailly drawing a lot of local interest

Gilles Arnaud Bailly, a 19-year-old from Hasselt, Belgium who is ranked 869th, has drawn a lot of local interest from tournament organizers and fans. He is one of four Belgians in this year’s main draw singles, joining Zizou Bergs, Alexander Blockx and Raphael Collignon, after winning consecutive qualifying-draw matches as a wild card entrant.

Before Antwerp, the right-handed Bailly has spent the entire season honing his skills on the ITF World Tennis Tour. He was a recent quarterfinalist in an ITF M25 event on clay in Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy. This season, Bailly has compiled a 14-14 win-loss record in all competitions.

Bailly started on the right foot in Sunday’s first day of qualifying by defeating 123rd-ranked Pierre–Hugues Herbert of France, 7-6 (7), 6-3, which advanced him to play No. 318 Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia. He won 7-6 (4), 6-1.

After advancing past Basilashvili in an hour and 40 minutes behind seven aces and 15 winners, Bailly told reporters (translated from Dutch): “I think this is the best thing I’ve ever felt, especially after such a difficult period. I did the right things, but it just didn’t work out. I just didn’t find my game on clay, and even after that it didn’t go great, I didn’t know what it was.

“The last few weeks I felt things that were going better and qualifying now is really great,” he added. “This is a new start. College tennis was a nice experience, but now I want to go all to become a pro.”

Across Lotto Arena

As qualifying action got underway on Sunday, the tournament’s inspiring Ethias NextGen Day 2024 took place at Lotto Arena. It gave Belgian youth a chance to train and share rallies with 2016 European Open champion Richard Gasquet as well as up-and-coming pros Raphael Collignon and Alexander Blockx of Belgium. There was also an interactive Q and A session with tournament director Dick Norman, and Keon Bergs, father of Belgium No. 2 Zizou Bergs, talked on the theme of “Raising a champion: The critical role of parents in tennis.”

Tuesday is Belgian Day at the European Open as doubles team Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen will be action as well as Zizou Bergs and Alexander Blockx. No. 3 seeds Gille and Vliegen will play Manuel Guinard and Gregoire Jacq of France, No. 69 Bergs will play No. 67 Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina, and 231st-ranked wild card Blockx will oppose No. 62 No. Arthur Rinderknech of France.

Monday’s European Open results

Tuesday’s European Open order of play

By the numbers

Richard Gasquet of France is the oldest competitor at this year’s event. The 38-year-old won the inaugural Antwerp edition and owns the record for most appearances in tournament history (8).

“Quotable …”

“My first match indoors but I enjoyed it. I hope for the best in the next match. I’m very happy for this victory. … Yes, it’s a good start.”

— No. 7 seed Mariano Navone of Argentina, during his on-court interview, after winning his first indoor hard-court match on Monday over Thiago Monteiro.

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