E-Paper
French teens turning heads at Wimbledon
Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils are both former junior world No.1s and now they are poised to make their mark at the senior level.
Two French teen talents have the big names at Wimbledon looking over their shoulders.
Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils are both former junior world No.1s and now they are poised to make their mark at the senior level.
That is where the similarities end though.
The 19-year-old Gasquet is from the rugby playing town of Beziers in the south of France and he loves grass having won the first tournament of his short career on the surface at Nottingham last week.
He has come through two rounds comfortably enough in his second senior campign at Wimbledon and had expected to be facing big rival and French Open champion Rafael Nadal of Spain for a place in the last 16.
But Nadal's suprise elimination at the hands of Gilles Muller of Luxembourg has opened up the field for him and he is hopeful of making more progress.
"I know I can play good on grass courts because I have already won a tournament. It's a great surface for me. I think I can go far," he said.
But as for providing the first French winner of the event since Yvon Petra in 1946, Gasquet said not to count on him just yet.
"It's too long for me to play. I have to play another five matches to win. It's too difficult for me just now," he said.
The 18-year-old Monfils, the son of a former soccer player from Guadeloupe and a born and bred Parisian, makes no effort to hide his distaste for the surface, even though he won the Wimbledon junior title last year
"I can't quite put my finger on it, but this surface does nothing for me," he said.
"I would rather play on any other surface, but at the end of the day I am a fighter so I play on."
Monfils won three out of the four junior Grand Slam tournaments last year, missing out only on the US Open where Britain's Andrew Murray was the winner.
But he has largely failed to impress since then and has been under fire from his French coaches for a lackadaisical approach to his training.
That came to a head at last month's French Open when he appeared on court for his first round tie against Guillermo Canas draped in a boxing-style shirt and hood and with his iPod plugs in his ears.
He was promptly given a claycourt lesson by the hardened Argentinian and afterwards admitted that he had to get his act together or his talent could go to waste.
It has been a much-changed Monfils at the All England club so far epitomised by his battling five-set win over Dominik Hrbaty in the second round.
He next goes up against last year's semi-finalist Mario Ancic for a place in the last 16.
