WIMBLEDON, England—Richard Gasquet says he is prepared to take on Novak Djokovic following his five-set defeat of Stanislas Wawrinka in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Gasquet, who fell to Wawrinka in five sets in a memorable match at the French Open two years ago, was serving for the quarterfinal match at 5-3 in the fifth but got broken and needed several more games to get the victory.
"Of course, it's a very nice victory for me to win against him 11-9 in the fifth. It's great," said Gasquet. "It's a revenge for me a little bit."
Gasquet is now in his third Grand Slam semifinal. "Of course, I'm proud because there are big players in semis. I'm the worst when you see Federer, Djokovic and Murray and me," he smiled. "There is something, I want to enjoy it."
The 29-year-old Frenchman also reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2008. He says a lot has changed since that time. "Older, for sure. Eight years more. I'm 29 now. I was 21. Yeah, I have more experience. I know what it means to be in semis. It's a long time I didn't do it."
Gasquet acknowledges that Djokovic is the favorite but is prepared to attempt to pull off a victory against the No. 1.
"Of course, it's incredible player to face in semis to be in Grand Slam final. You need to win these guys in semis. Of course, I'm there. I want to enjoy that moment and to try to reach the final, of course," said Gasquet. "So I want to enjoy it, to play a better match than I did in Paris. It's important for me to think I can win this match. That's the most important. To go on the court and think you can win, it's something I need to do it on my mental part, to be there to win."
Gasquet will be looking to emply the same attacking game he used against Wawrinka but knows he will have to be better than in his previous meeting with Djokovic, saying, "Yeah, to play a big game, to be aggressive, try to be very aggressive. I played him in Paris. I tried to control the game. Of course, he was playing much better than me. I couldn't do many games in that match."