Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet: Tennis Pros Gone Wild!

After France beat Romania to move into the quarter finals of the Davis Cup on Sunday, Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet apparently need to blow off some steam.

And blow it off they did. Tsonga and Gasquet hit a strip club in Sibiu, Romania and quickly became the main attraction.

Unfortunately, the athletes didn't engage in a round of mixed doubles.

Recently
Sportrait: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [tr]
Djokovic Wins Australian Open, Vows Never to Wear Shirt Again [tr]
Wimbledon Semi-finalist Richard Gasquet: It's Obvious I'm Not Gay [tr]

Sphere: Related Content

Sportrait: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

There's been a major upset at the Australian Open. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France has risen through the draw and overnight the #38-ranked player in the world put away #2 Rafael Nadal 6-2 6-3 6-2 in less than two hours to face either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday. Now that's worth throwing your shirt into the stands for.

Tsonga defeated #14 Mikhail Youzhny and his compatriot, #8 Richard Gasquet to reach the semi-final.

You may have missed...
Sportrait: Michael Phelps [tr]
Sportrait: Brett Favre [tr]
Sportrait: Raúl [tr]
Sportrait: 2007 Heisman Award Hotties Tim Tebow, Darren McFadden, Colt Brennan, and Chase Daniel [tr]
Sportrait: David Kopay [tr]

One more shot, AFTER THE JUMP...

Sphere: Related Content

Martina Navratilova on Gay Men in Tennis

In a lengthy interview with Outsports, Martina Navratilova says she believes she has lost over $10 million in endorsement deals because of openness about her sexuality, but doesn't know why there are no openly gay men in professional tennis:

"I have no idea. I don’t personally know any who are gay, because none have come out to me. Honest to God. I have suspicions, but I don’t know of one who’s definitely gay. I read that letter to Tennis magazine [in 1994] from an anonymous male player who said 'thank you because we’re not all as brave as you are,' but I don’t know who they are. But I don’t know why. It can’t be because they’re all worried about endorsements, because most of them don’t get any anyway. And now, perhaps they’d get one because they are gay. It’s funny. I understand it in team sports because it can become a negative if the coach or the front office is homophobic and you might not get to play; let alone that your opponents might come after you. But in tennis, nobody can stop you from playing because of your sexuality or if someone doesn’t like you. If your ranking is good enough, you get to play. It’s very simple. So I don’t know why none have come out."

Maybe the $10 million has something to do with it.

I've chosen a photo of Frenchman Richard Gasquet to go with this post not because the player has said he's gay but because he's felt the need to deny it — twice.

Martina Navratilova on the AARP and drugs and gays in tennis [outsports]

You may have missed...
Tennis #8 Richard Gasquet: Nope, Still Not Gay [tr]
Wimbledon Semi-finalist Richard Gasquet: It's Obvious I'm Not Gay [tr]

Sphere: Related Content

Tennis #8 Richard Gasquet: Nope, Still Not Gay

Frenchman Richard Gasquet, recently immortalized as a terra cotta warrior for his appearance at the Shanghai Tennis Masters Cup, gave an interview following his matches there, Outsports reports, and reaffirmed the fact that he's not gay, even though he wasn't even asked.

Via the interview:

Q. Now your matches are finished. Do you still have any plan to go around the city maybe with your uncle or your girlfriend?

RICHARD GASQUET: My uncle? No. My girlfriend, no. I have no girlfriend, so I will try to find one, one Chinese girl. Why not? Why not? I lost 6-1, 6-1. It will be very hard for me tonight. I'm ready to lose, you know.

Q. Who is the girl watching your match with your uncle?

RICHARD GASQUET: Not my girl. I don't know. Not my girl, for sure. No, no, no, I have just friends. Men friends, but I'm not gay.

You may remember in July of last year that Gasquet, now ranked #8 in the world, denied he was gay after French magazine Le Point printed a rumor that he was having an affair with 46-year-old married French businessman Arnaud Lagardere. Said Gasquet at the time: "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."

So if it's so obvious, why the need to repeat it?

Richard Gasquet, still not gay [outsports]

Previously
Wimbledon Semi-finalist Richard Gasquet: It's Obvious I'm Not Gay [tr]
Terra Cotta Tennis Warriors Unveiled in Shanghai: Federer, Nadal, Davydenko, Djokovic, Roddick, Ferrer, Gonzalez, Gasquet [tr]

Sphere: Related Content

Terra Cotta Tennis Warriors Unveiled in Shanghai: Federer, Nadal, Davydenko, Djokovic, Roddick, Ferrer, Gonzalez, Gasquet

Novak Djokovic

In September I posted about the upcoming Shanghai ATP Tennis Masters tournament and the Chinese warrior statues that were being created by French sculptor Laury Dizengremel in the likenesses of the tourney's "elite eight". The warriors, of course, are meant to resemble the terra cotta army buried with the Emperor of Qin in 210-209 BC.

Well, the tournament got underway yesterday and the sculptures were unveiled. Here they are in all their glory. I can't say that the likenesses are necessarily spot-on (Novak Djokovic comes out looking a bit like Lance Bass) but the player portraits are hot. I've taken some close-ups of the Quentin Shih photograph for your perusal.

Andy Roddick, who reportedly asked for an alteration, as the baseball cap that's part of his public image wasn't included in the first go-round.

The rest, after the jump...

Richard (I'm not gay) Gasquet and Fernando Gonzalez

David Ferrer

Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko

Roger (King Arthur) Federer

You may have missed...
Tennis' Top Eight Men Immortalized in Terracotta [tr]
Djokovic Delivers at Davis Cup Play-off [tr]
Nadal, Banderas, Moya: Spanish Threesome at the French Open [tr]
Sportrait: James Blake [tr]

Sphere: Related Content

Wimbledon Semi-finalist Richard Gasquet: It's Obvious I'm Not Gay

Missed this one back in April. But then again, at that point Frenchman Richard Gasquet hadn't leapt onto the Wimbledon radar.

This past week, Gasquet vanquished Andy Roddick to face Roger Federer in the semi-finals. In April, French magazine Le Point printed a rumor that 46-year-old married French businessman Arnaud Lagardere was having an affair with the player.

Gasquet responded to ASAP Sports: "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."

Over the weekend Federer struggled to defeat Rafael Nadal in five sets in the third-longest men's final ever.

(via Outsports)

Sphere: Related Content