Gasquet Wins 300th Career Match; Youzhny Reaches 400

Statisfaction: A Frenchman and a Russian quietly make their way up the recordbook ladder.

By Chris Oddo

Richard Gasquet Wins 300th Career Match in Doha

(January 3, 2012) -- Both Richard Gasquet and Mikhail Youzhny notched their 300th and 400th wins, respectively, while vying for the trophy at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, contested this week in Doha, Qatar.

More often than not, Gasquet, the 26-year-old Frenchman, has been criticized for his lack of breakthrough victories to support his talent, which is widely recognized as out of this world.

But, after getting sidetracked (does the name Pamela ring a bell?) for a few years things have been going nicely for Gasquet of late. The Beziers, France native finished in the top ten in 2012 for the first time since 2007, and he's off to a fine start in Doha in 2013.

Gasquet's career arc post-2007 hasn't been what many fans had hoped for, but at the tender age of 26, Gasquet's best years could still be in front of him. Proving just that, he joined a very select group when he became only the 8th Frenchman to reach the coveted 300-win plateau in Doha on Wednesday.

Gasquet followed that tight three-set victory over Greg Zemlja with win No. 301 to reach the semifinals of the Qatar Exxon Mobil Open today, and he'll face Daniel Brands for a shot at making the final tomorrow in Doha.

With 300 victories under his belt, it looks like Gasquet, who won 44 matches in 2012, could have a chance to become the winningest Frenchman of all-time if he can play at this level for another five years.

Whether he will is another story entirely, but a man can dream, can't he?

Here's a quick peek at all the Frenchmen to reach the 300-win plateau:

Player	Wins
Yannick Noah	476
Fabrice Santoro	470
Cedric Pioline	389
Guy Forget	378
>Henri Leconte	377
Sebastien Grosjean	341
Arnaud Clement	316
Richard Gasquet	301

Earlier in the week, Russian Mikhail Youzhny kicked off his 2013 campaign with a milestone of his own when he notched a 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-1 win over Benjamin Becker in Doha to become the ninth active ATP player to reach the coveted 400-win mark. He also became the fourth Russian in history to get to 400.

Here's a list of all four Russians to have cracked 400 wins:

Player	Wins
Yevgeny Kafelnikov	609
Nikolay Davydenko	458
Marat Safin	422
Mikhail Youzhny	400

Since we are looking at wins, here are the top 18 active win leaders on the ATP Tour:

Player	Career win-loss
Roger Federer	878-198
Rafael Nadal	583-122
Lleyton Hewitt	568-219
Tommy Haas	500-283
David Ferrer	491-246
Novak Djokovic	469-123
Nikolay Davydenko	457-297
Mikhail Youzhny	400-290
Andy Murray	381-123
David Nalbandian	377-187
Tomas Berdych	378-214
James Blake	357-242
Fernando Verdasco	350-241
Jarkko Nieminen	336-276
Radek Stepanek	331-245
Richard Gasquet	301-185
Mardy Fish	296-210