Perhaps no one knows what Gasquet’s life is like as much as, oh, maybe Venus Williams. Touted as the new superstar of the projects, Venus was expected to do well even at the ripe young age of 12. France, similarly, thought Richard Gasquet would be the new French superstar. Until, that is, the fateful day where he “kissed” someone that he alleged had some “coke” that he accidentally ingested.

As outlandish as that sounds, it’s perhaps more outlandish that it was accepted as fact. In any case, while he was banned from tour, Gasquet moped, wondering if his career was done for. But the powers that be in tennis let him back into the game, and he’s been toiling trying to make himself relevant again.

Gasquet still has one of the biggest backhands in the game. As good as Federer’s backhand is, he doesn’t rip winners from it all that often. He’s versatile, but there’s a reason he runs around his backhand all the time.

If Federer has a weakness, his return game may be one of them. Last week in Madrid, he struggled to beat Feliciano Lopez and needed three sets to get past the pesky Spaniard. He was up a set and a break on Gasquet, but let Gasquet back in the set. Gasquet took the second set, and they remained even in the third set until a tiebreak. Gasquet was able to get an early lead and eventually the upset.

Federer’s strategy nch the French Open seems to revolve around getting his game steady. In the early parts of the clay season, Federer will attack more, and produce more errors. As he plays the last tournament before the French, his play becomes more conservative. He prefers to play longer points and go on the attack somewhat less.

It’s not entirely clear why he does this. It almost seems like he hopes that he will hit pay dirt playing a risky style, getting into the kind of zone that Berdych did when he reached the semis of the French, then the finals of Wimbledon. And when that invariably doesn’t happen, he decides that to win the French, he has to play steady ball, so he works on that part of his game, even to the point of sacrificing a tournament win.

He’s not really much worse for wear this year compared to last. Last year he lost in the opening round at Rome to Gulbis, and skipped Monte Carlo. He made it to the finals of Madrid. This year, he lost to Melzer in the quarters of Monte Carlo, made the semis of Madrid, and lost in the third round of Rome.

In other news, Andy Murray made it further into the tournament than Roger Federer, handily beating Potito Starace. Up next for him is tough German, Florian Mayer. All things considered, Murray has a pretty nice draw.

Soderling needed three sets to beat Almagro. Berdych needed three sets to beat Nieminen. Cilic won in straight sets, and Nadal, who struggled to beat Lorenzi had a much easier time beating Lopez.

Nadal plays Cilic next, then Gasquet and Berdych, Murray and Mayer, and the winner of Djokovic-Wawrinka against Soderling.