Like anyone else, Gasquet has to fight his opponents and the usual demons, but he also has to fight his childhood version of himself, the one who, in a mythic way, is better than the 23-year-old he is now. You can see that kid break out of the adult body at certain moments, what I call Gasquet’s Microwave moments. These are the stretches of games when, like the old Detroit Pistons guard Vinnie “The Microwave” Johnson, he can’t miss—he couldn’t miss if he tried. Gasquet hits winners effortlessly, from anywhere and to anywhere, making up angles and trajectories that no one knew existed on a tennis court before. He doesn’t even seem to be looking at the ball or swinging particularly hard. The only way you know how fast the ball is traveling is that his opponents can't even take a step before it's past them. It can’t be explained, other than as something Gasquet was born with. You can imagine that when adults saw him hit these same types of inexplicable shots as a kid, shots no one had seen before, they must have believe he was the future of French tennis.... But while hitting impossible shots may be child’s play for him, it takes a man to do the dirty work of winning.
Beautiful piece on Richard G. by Tignor, who was fifth row center for today's battle.
