pain in his back intercostal muscles. Gasquet withdrew from the 2016 Olympics tennis tournament because of his back injury. In the men's singles draw, Gasquet was replaced by his compatriot Benoît Paire, while in the men's doubles draw he was replaced by Gaël Monfils, who paired up with Tsonga. 2017: Hopman Cup & Davis Cup victories Gasquet stated that it was his goal to return to the top ten of the ATP singles rankings in 2017. He also stated he wanted to achieve greater success at the bigger tournaments, which he defined as the Grand Slam events and the Davis Cup (rather than the Masters 1000 tournaments). He started the year at the Hopman Cup, where he won both his singles and doubles matches, securing a victory for France over their opponents Germany. In France's next match, Gasquet once again delivered winning both his matches (singles and mixed doubles) to ensure France's defeat of Great Britain. However, that meant Gasquet would have to play Roger Federer of Switzerland, whom he had lost to on numerous occasions in the past. Predictably, Gasquet lost to Federer in straight sets, the first set being a 6–1 annihilation, however due to Mladenovic's victory over Bencic and Mladenovic and Gasquet's victory over Federer and Bencic in the mixed doubles, France progressed through to the final where they faced the United States. France defeated the United States in the final, after Gasquet and Mladenovic pulled off the decisive victory in the mixed doubles. Gasquet then played at the Australian Open where he lost in the third round to Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets. That match had the honour of being the latest starting match in the history of the Australian Open with a start time of 11.58pm. Gasquet won his singles rubber against Taro Daniel in France's Davis Cup World Group 4-1 first round win over Japan. In early February, Gasquet was beaten in the singles final of the Open Sud de France by Alexander Zverev in straight sets. Gasquet was forced to miss the first three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments of the year (Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo), following appendicitis surgery. He missed the next two ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (Madrid and Rome) due to back injury. Gasquet's best singles results from mid-February to the end of June were in ATP World Tour tournaments in Marseille, Halle and Eastbourne, losing in the singles semifinals of