Diego Junqueira and defeated Denis Istomin in the second round. In the third round, he lost to Fernando González in a five-set match that lasted over four hours. He held a match point in the third-set tiebreak, but was unable to convert it. Gasquet had to pull out of the tournament in Marseille because of a right-shoulder injury. His next tournament was Dubai. In the first round, he defeated Marat Safin. He then defeated Simone Bolelli and received a walkover into the semifinals following Andy Murray's withdrawal because of illness, where he was then defeated by David Ferrer. He then participated in the Davis Cup with Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Gaël Monfils against the Czech Republic in the first round. Gasquet teamed up with Michaël Llodra (who replaced Monfils) to play the doubles rubber on day two, but they lost in four sets against Radek Štěpánek and Tomáš Berdych. France then went on to lose the tie 2–3, the first time they had exited in the first round since 2000. His next tournament was the BNP Paribas Open Masters 1000 in Indian Wells. He received a bye in the first round, and then defeated compatriot Michaël Llodra, before losing to Fernando Verdasco in the third round. In May 2009, Gasquet was provisionally suspended after testing positive for cocaine. Traces of the drug were found in a urine sample taken in March 2009. In July 2009, he was cleared to return to competitive tennis after a tribunal found that "the cocaine entered his system through inadvertent contamination in a nightclub". Gasquet suggested that the cocaine entered his system after he French-kissed a stripper, known only by her first name "Pamela", in a Miami nightclub. The tribunal stated that the quantity of cocaine detected in Gasquet's sample was "very small, about the size of a grain of salt" Gasquet made his return to the tour at the Pilot Pen championship in New Haven to qualify for the main draw, but lost in the second round of qualifying. Playing his first Grand Slam since January, Gasquet drew Rafael Nadal in the first round of the US Open and lost in straight sets. Gasquet made a solid run at his next tournament, the Open de Moselle in Metz, beating Michael Berrer, Christophe Rochus and Philipp Petzschner to reach his first ATP semifinal since January. He lost to eventual winner Gaël Monfils. Gasquet also