Frenchman Richard Gasquet, former top 7 and currently 116th in the world, reached his number one thousand match at ATP level by joining a select and exclusive group active on the circuit when competing in the second round of the Madrid Masters and was honored.
Coming from the qualifier, Gasquet reached his thousandth match when he was defeated by the Italian Lorenzo Sonego, 52nd, with a score of 6/2 7/5 after 1h24 of the match.
Despite the defeat, the rare feat of reaching a thousand matches at ATP level was celebrated by the ATP and the organization of the Madrid Masters, through director Feliciano López paid tribute to Gasquet with a painting, with a photo of him beating his already historic one-handed backhand.
«I’m very proud and reaching this number means that I worked very hard and very well. It is neither luck nor coincidence to maintain this form for 17 consecutive seasons,” he said upon receiving the honor in Madrid.
“Tennis is my passion and I fight every day to continue playing at the highest level. I don’t know if it will be my last time here in Madrid, but I’m proud of what I did,” he added.
Gasquet became the fourth active tennis player on the circuit to complete a thousand matches at ATP level. In addition to him, the Serbian Novak Djokovic (1,315 games) and the Spaniards Rafael Nadal (1,291) and Fernando Verdasco (1,006) are part of this select list.
Tags: Gasquet joins select group Nadal Djokovic honored Madrid
