Young love sweeps France

French Open: At 15 Gasquet already has a nation enthralled. Soon it will be time for the world

He's 15, he's French and, according to the ecstatic tennis folk of that lucky nation, Richard Gasquet could become better than Borg, bigger than Becker. Tomorrow Gasquet steps into the French Open clutching a wild card, awarded after he qualified and then won a round at Monte Carlo last month, the youngest ever to do so in a Masters Series event. And, immediately after Roland Garros, the lad from the Languedoc has been wild-carded into the Stella Artois grass tournament at Queen's; once again, the youngest – and this at a location where Boris Becker won in 1985 aged 17 before marching off to storm Wimbledon.

Gasquet will mark his 16th birthday on 18 June, two days after the Queen's final. By then, who knows, Wimbledon may have weighed in with a wild card, too, though soon Gasquet's ranking will mean he requires no such generosity.

In addition to being a player of exceptional skills, Gasquet is also clearly resilient to a remarkable degree. Otherwise he would long ago have been buried by the avalanche of accolades. Aged nine, he was pictured on the cover of the French magazineTennis alongside the headline "The Champion France Awaits". By 11, he had exchanged shots with Borg and Agassi. By 12 he was winning Under-16 titles. The champion France awaits was launched.

When Pierre Barthes, a former French No 1 and member of the renowned Handsome Eight professional group, first clapped eyes on Gasquet he recalled: "I had in front of me a little Rosewall." Richard was eight. Andy Roddick, the 19-year-old bright hope of America, says, "I was still trying to learn how to tie my shoes at 15", and Roddick's French coach, Tarik Benhabiles, adds: "Richard is 20 times stronger than Andy was at the same age. He is a tennis phenomenon. It is even possible he will be in the French Davis Cup team for the semi-final against the US at Roland Garros in September."

Already, in fact, the French captain, Guy Forget, has invited Gasquet to be a practice partner on that squad. Without doubt, Forget will have had in mind an occasion four years ago, recalled by Patrice Hagelauer, former top French youth coach and now the Lawn Tennis Association's performance director. "I was at a training camp in the south of France with Forget and I had a clinic one afternoon with a lot of kids. I asked Guy to hit at his own pace with Richard, who was 11 and a half, and I asked the other children to count how many times the ball went over the net. They hit 116 shots without missing and the first one to miss was Guy. That gives you an idea how talented Richard was, even at that age.

"He is a genius. To be under 16 and winning the type of matches he is doing, is something I have never seen before, except in the case of Michael Chang. In the whole world you only get someone like this every five or 10 years. France is very lucky, I would love to have someone like this in Britain. But you don't produce these people, they are born, like Nastase, who came from Romania. They could exist anywhere. I just pray he will avoid injuries. Everybody in France is looking after him very carefully. The biggest mistake would be to want to get him too quickly into the top 50."

There ought not to be many worries on that score. The current edition of the magazine which had him on the cover in February 1996 describes Gasquet as "a player of stupefying maturity, speed and vision, an ideal cocktail", and Gunther Bosch, who coached Becker through his years of teenage success, forecast: "Gasquet is going to become great, because he can read the game. But it is best to reserve judgement a while because two tests await: his first car and his first girl friend. After that we will have a better idea."

Where Richard is fortunate is in his parents. Francis and Maryse Gasquet are tennis coaches, who devoted time and skill to their only son in the community of Serignan, near Béziers. Unlike tennis parents who cling too long, the Gasquets took bold decisions last October when the French Tennis Federation asked to take over Richard's career. They sold their home in Serignan and bought a one-bedroom apartment in Paris, close to Roland Garros. Richard got the bedroom, mum and dad slept in the living room.

While Francis Gasquet found work with the city's youth sports programme, Richard joined a trio of teenagers, all three years older, on a development course. "Everything was hard when I started," Richard admitted but the fruits came quickly. Three months later he was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open juniors, beaten 9-7 in the third set by an opponent two and a half years older.

In March he played a four-tournament senior satellite tour in Spain, two matches a day, no umpires, and ended as second-best performer, which is what earned him the wild card into the qualifying of Monte Carlo. Here in one bewildering week, he beat three players in the world's top 100, Russia's Nicolay Davydenko and Adrian Voinea of Romania in qualifying and then the Argentine, Franco Squillari, in the first round before a 6-4 6-1 defeat by Marat Safin.

Before the Davydenko match, Richard told his mother: "I just hope I don't lose 6-0 6-0." Having won 6-1 6-1 he came across the beaten Russian in tears in the dressing room. Voinea, who went on to knock out Tim Henman a week later in Hamburg, was also seen off and, though Squillari had been a semi-finalist at the French Open of 2000, Gasquet was doubly delighted: he likes to face left-handers and had by chance studied videos of Squillari. The boy wonder won that one in three sets and two and a half hours.

Afterwards, Francis Gasquet did not go to congratulate his son. "He had no need of me in the middle of this success," he said.

"This precocious son of mine had done things comparable to legends like Borg, Becker and Chang. From now on it will be up to him to make his own way to the status of a legend in his own right."

Advantage tiros

Michael Chang
15 years 6 months: Won a match at US Open 1987

17 yrs 3 mths: Youngest winner of Grand Slam title, French Open, 1989

Andre Agassi
15 yrs 9 mths: Won first professional match at La Quinta, 1986

Lleyton Hewitt
15 yrs 11 mths: Youngest qualifier for Australian Open, 1997

Aaron Krickstein
16 yrs 2 mths: Youngest tournament winner, Tel Aviv 1983

Pete Sampras
16 yrs 7 mths: Won first match at Indian Wells, 1987

Bjorn Borg
16 yrs 9 mths: Runner-up at Monte Carlo, 1973

Boris Becker
17 yrs 7 months: Youngest winner of Wimbledon, 1985