LONDON — Richard Gasquet eloquently summed up what it feels like to be an also ran at Wimbledon on Friday after an elastic-limbed Novak Djokovic bounced the Frenchman out of the All England Club in the semi-finals.
"To lose against Novak in the semi-final, it's very nice for me," said the Frenchman.
Losing is nice?
It is not an observation Djokovic or any of his 'Big Four' contemporaries of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal or Andy Murray would come out with after missing out on a chance to contest a Wimbledon final.
But with the gulf between the elite and those scraping for crumbs as vast as the Pacific Ocean, it is little wonder that the 29-year-old Frenchman was not about to beat himself up after falling to his 12th defeat in 13 meetings with the top-ranked Serb.