Ranked 101st, the avant-garde upstart with a lovely yet lethal one-handed backhand impressed in taking the first set to a tiebreaker. But when he lost it 7-1, it was reasonable to expect Gasquet to fade away. The opposite happened. Gasquet ran through the second set, 6-2, and was pushing Federer hard.
“For the first time,” Tignor wrote, “we saw just how hot tennis’ version of The Microwave could get.”
Gasquet took a 5-2 lead in the third, but Federer wouldn’t capitulate in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin easily. The Swiss saved two match points and forced a winner-take-all tiebreak, then earned three match points of his own. Gasquet saved them all and, as Tignor put it, “finishes with one of the great match-ending shots of all time, an on-the-run backhand pass from well behind the baseline.”
