![\"Moise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/kouame-gasquet-training-monte-carlo-2026.jpg\")
<\/p>\n Player Features
\n Kouame, 17, seeks Monte-Carlo spark inspired by Gasquet<\/p>\n
17-year-old Frenchman makes his debut this week at the clay ATP Masters 1000 event<\/p>\n
April 05, 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
S\u00e9bastien Darrasse \/ Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters<\/p>\n
Moise Kouame trains ahead of his debut at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, where Richard Gasquet reached the semi-finals in 2005.
\n By Jerome Coombe<\/p>\n
Moise Kouame<\/a> arrives at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters<\/a> as one of the brightest young talents in the game and hopes to emulate a dream teenage run once produced on these same courts by his mentor, Richard Gasquet<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 17-year-old Frenchman broke through last month by earning his first ATP Tour win in Miami and becoming the youngest match winner at ATP Masters 1000 level since Rafael Nadal<\/a> in 2003. Kouame, who plays with elasticity and efficient ball striking, now has his sights on a debut at the season\u2019s first clay Masters 1000 event in Monaco, where he received a wild card into the main draw.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to try and do my best here,\u201d Kouame told ATP Media in a pre-tournament interview in Monaco. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable. During the first training, I couldn\u2019t believe that I was actually here. But very quickly, I had to switch on. I have to be as ready as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, Kouame has received advice from countryman and former World No. 7 Gasquet, who retired in 2025. Their relationship is particularly resonant during Kouame\u2019s first foray in Monte-Carlo given Gasquet\u2019s own history at this tournament.<\/p>\n Gasquet, then just 15 years and 10 months old, arrived in Monte-Carlo in April 2002 as a qualifier and, at the time, became the youngest match winner in Masters 1000 history by defeating Franco Squillari<\/a> in his first match.<\/p>\n Then as an 18-year-old in 2005, Gasquet returned to produce a memorable breakthrough by surging to the semi-finals, highlighted by a stunning quarter-final upset over World No. 1 Roger Federer<\/a> in three sets. The Frenchman then bowed out to eventual champion Rafael Nadal<\/a> in the last four after taking the opener.<\/p>\n Gasquet would go on to reach the quarter-finals in the Principality on three further occasions \u2014 in 2007, 2013 and 2018 \u2014 finishing with a 19-12 tournament record, according to the Infosys ATP Win\/Loss Index. Two decades on, Kouame, with the benefit of direct insight from someone who has already navigated its unique pressures and possibilities, will hope to emulate Gasquet\u2019s teenage achievement.<\/p>\n If Kouame can navigate his first-round clash with countryman Ugo Humbert<\/a>, he will face a popcorn meeting with World No. 2 Jannik Sinner<\/a>. At a career-high World No. 328, Kouame is the youngest player inside the Top 800 of the PIF ATP Rankings, further cementing his status as one of the rising stars.<\/p>\n In February, he qualified for his first tour-level main draw on home soil in Montpellier, where he offered a glimpse of his potential before announcing himself in Miami. There, he became the first player born in 2009 or later to win an ATP Tour match, and later received a congratulatory message from his idol<\/a> Novak Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Get To Know: Moise Kouame<\/a><\/p>\n With his early results in 2026, which also include a run to the semi-finals of an ATP Challenger, Kouame has positioned himself as one of the standout names of the #NextGenATP cohort.<\/p>\n Monte-Carlo, then, represents a chance to build on a breakout year, to test himself against elite opposition, and to continue shaping an identity at the highest level of the sport. Perhaps, it is an opportunity to begin writing a story that echoes the past, while ultimately forging something entirely his own.<\/p>\n Read more from Monte-Carlo
Sinner & Alcaraz’s Monte-Carlo draw: Which intriguing opponents could they face in R2?
<\/a>How Sinner can become World No. 1 in Monte-Carlo<\/a>
<\/a>
\n2026 Monte-Carlo tennis prize money<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Player Features Kouame, 17, seeks Monte-Carlo spark inspired by Gasquet 17-year-old Frenchman makes his debut this week at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-587081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}