VIENNA, Oct 10: French number one Richard Gasquet is gambling on doing well at the upcoming Masters Series events in Madrid and Paris as he bids for a place in the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.

The 21-year old is ranked 10 in the race for Shanghai, but only 17 points separate seventh-placed Fernando Gonzalez and 14th-placed Ivan Ljubicic.

But instead of competing as planned this week at the BA-CA Trophy in Vienna and gathering as many vital race points as possible, the number four seed withdrew after winning Mumbai and reaching the Tokyo final in the past two weeks.

“I played a lot of tennis last week and two weeks ago, and the Masters Series are important for me so I have to do well in Madrid and Paris,” Gasquet said. “I have a little bit of a problem with my elbow so I had to pull out from this tournament. I have to rest a little bit.”

Gasquet has enjoyed a tremendous season, reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals but suffering a disappointing defeat at Roland Garros when he fell in the second round to Kristof Vliegen. “It was really difficult when I was 18, 19. But now I am 11 in the world and I’m playing really good,” he stated.—AFP