Gasquet: 'Unseeded player like me can face Rafael Nadal in first round'
Richard Gasquet opened his run in style at the French Open defeating in straight sets. The Frenchman is playing just his fourth tournament since undergoing groin surgery. "When you're not a seeded player anything can happen", said Gasquet. "You can play a wildcard, a qualified player, or Nadal or Djokovic. It's all in the draw. So right from the start, I knew the match was playable. And afterwards, of course, I have questions regarding my physical level. But I'm happy that I won and that I was able to win this match, to play matches, and now I see that day after day it's coming better and better. I'm happy for me that I have a normal draw, first round, with my reach. But I have only been replaying in tournaments for three weeks. I'm very happy. Although I'm not at my best level I'm happy to have won this match and I want to enjoy it."
Asked if he feels capable of winning long matches, Gasquet replied: "I'll do my best. Game after game, I'll be ready on Wednesday. I didn't have too many efforts today. It was tougher in Lyon last week, and I'll try to do my best to go as far as possible. I have been replaying for three weeks and I had stopped for six months, so already I'm very happy about that."
Asked what's the toughest thing the day after a match, Gasquet concluded: "Impossible to move. When it's been six months you haven't played and you play a match with a lot of stress and you want to win, muscles react very poorly. And that's what happened for three or four days I had pain. But this match was very positive for now because I was able to serve, and the shoulder was more ready. The back also. So you have to play at a very high level to understand these things. You need time. Going left and right, you have to be very, very strong physically to hold the fort up against players playing high tennis. And this match was very tough in the days after, but it was very important to have a good draw at that time."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2K9Hd3Y
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