Wimbledon star quashes gay rumours
A semi-finalist in the Wimbledon Men’s Singles tennis competition has said he is angry at a report in a French magazine that he is gay and in a relationship with an older man.
21-year-old Richard Gasquet beat Andy Roddick last week to reach a career-high ranking of seventh in the world. He was knocked out of the tournament by eventual winner Roger Federer.
Le Point reported that the French player was having an affair with a 46-year-old married businessman.
In an interview with ASAP Sports, Gasquet responded to the rumours:
“I was absolutely not happy about that. This question has come back hundreds of times, and every time someone turns up saying,
‘Oh, I have evidence.’ It is just bullshit. Neither him nor me are homosexuals. It’s absolutely obvious.”
The Telegraph reported that at the Monte Carlo Masters in April Gasquet, “barely had time to pour his Perrier when a voice piped up from the assembled media. ‘Er, tell me, Richard. Are you gay?’
“Pardonnez-moi?” he said, or words to that effect … Richard said that Le Point could scarcely have missed le point by a wider margin.
“He didn’t quite blow a Gasquet, but Richard was so keen to point out that he was straight, you half expected him break into a Maurice Chevalier-like rendition of ‘Thank ‘Evvens For Leeetul Girls.'”
Gasquet made it to the Men’s Singles Finals in Hamburg in 2005 and Toronto in 2006 but was beaten by Federer on both occasions.
