former top-10 player Tommy Haas, a silver medalist in 2000 at the Sydney Olympic Games to opt out of that year's Olympic Games. Gasquet began the grass-court season at Queen's Club, where he defeated Mario Ančić of Croatia in the second round, and Italian Simone Bolelli in the third round. However, in his quarterfinal match, he fell to David Nalbandian of Argentina. This was Gasquet's first quarterfinal appearance in a tournament that year. At Wimbledon, Gasquet was the eighth seed and defeated American Mardy Fish in the first round. In his next two matches, he defeated a pair of his compatriots, Sébastien Grosjean and Gilles Simon. He went out to Andy Murray in the fourth round despite serving for the match at 5–4 in the third set. At the new tennis rankings posted on 7 July 2008, Gasquet fell five places from No. 10 to 15, the first time in nine months that Gasquet’s ranking fell outside the top 10, the lowest he had been ranked since April 2007. At the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, Gasquet was the second seed and reached his first ATP tour semifinal and final of the year, defeating Spaniard Albert Montañés in the quarterfinals and sixth-seeded Argentine Agustín Calleri in the semifinals. Favourite to win the tournament, Gasquet suffered a surprise defeat in the finals to Argentine teenager Juan Martín del Potro in straight sets. Gasquet began with a first-round win over Frenchman Michaël Llodra in the Cincinnati Masters, after Llodra retired, and then lost in the second round to Dmitry Tursunov in straight sets. Gasquet made a first-round exit from the US Open, losing against Tommy Haas in five sets. 2009: Struggles with form and testing positive for cocaine Gasquet began his 2009 tour season at the Brisbane International. Gasquet came back from a set down to defeat Marc Gicquel in the first round. He then had a straight-set win over American Taylor Dent in the second round and defeated second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals. He lost to Radek Štěpánek in the semifinals. Gasquet then traveled to Sydney, Australia for the Medibank International. He defeated defending champion Dmitry Tursunov in the first round and second seed and compatriot Gilles Simon in straight sets in the second. Gasquet then defeated countryman Jérémy Chardy, before losing to David Nalbandian in the semifinals. At the Australian Open, he won his first-round match against Argentine