WHEN RICHARD Gasquet looked ahead to playing Andy Murray in the fourth round at Wimbledon, he gave his audience a polite nod before making clear his intention to send L'homme d'Ecosse out of his home grand slam tomorrow.

"He's a great player. He's a great guy. But for sure I have to beat Andy," said Gasquet, who earned his crack at Murray with a 6‑3, 6‑3, 6‑7 6‑3 win over his compatriot Gilles Simon yesterday. "If I have to play against him, I don't care if I'm the villain."

Gasquet reached the semi-finals of the Championships last year and has beaten Murray twice, both on fast surfaces, so would have no qualms about another meeting with the Scot were it not for the fact that even he has no idea when he is going to be blessed by brilliance. Gasquet, you see, is not always master of his own art. When he plays well, he can make the likes of Murray and even Roger Federer seem like park hackers. When he plays badly, it can be very ugly indeed.

"When I am playing great, I play in the top 10 for sure, yes," said Gasquet. "Sometimes I'm playing really, really good and I'm playing top 10, but not every day. So I have to play more consistent. I have to improve it for sure. Sometimes I'm playing bad. It's really difficult for me to win a match when I'm playing bad. I need to improve. I'm young, so I'm sure I can serve better and I can have a better forehand. I think my backhand is good now, but I have to serve well to have a better forehand and to be better mentally and physically."

With the help of his new coach Guillaume Peyre, who used to work with Marcos Baghdatis, Gasquet is trying to ensure that he can acquire the knack of all champions, that of winning when he is not playing well. It must be difficult for one of such ostentatious gifts - his backhand is a thing of beauty - that he is occasionally a little less than perfect. He also has a history of physical niggles and missed the French Open earlier this month with a knee injury, so getting stronger physically as well as mentally is also on his list of things to improve. Overall, he says, he needs to get more consistent.

Gasquet was a prodigy and was winning junior grand slam titles when he was youthful even by the standards of junior tennis. He featured on the cover of France's Tennis Magazine when he was just nine, and had to cope with intense pressure and expectation from a ridiculously early age. He turned professional at 15 but this shy, rather sensitive young man simply could not cope with everything that was being asked of him.

He says that he does not regret featuring on that magazine cover or the overall effect it had on his childhood: "Because at nine years old I was in the south of France and I didn't care about that. I was playing football with my friends. I was in a little town," he said. "When I was 17 and 18 or 19 I lost a lot of time with it. I was playing really bad because I was aware of a lot of attention on me, especially when I was playing in France in Roland Garros. When I was losing everybody was saying, He's playing bad. What happened?' It was maybe too much for me and I lost a lot of time. Me, I had a lot of pressure. It was maybe too big for me. Now it's okay. I have more experience and I did a lot of great matches. Now I'm more confident with it. Now I'm 22, so I have to have no pressure now. I'm more mature with it."

Unlike Murray, Gasquet at least has other talented young players around him to absorb some of the spotlight and must be glad for the presence of equally-gifted French peers like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Simon around him. All are immense talents and the Lawn Tennis Association must look across the channel with burning jealousy. "It's really strange, we learn technique when we are younger. We're not like the Spanish. They're really strong physically. We have great technique instead. We are very, very nice players and you cannot play without that on grass."

Gasquet has played well this Wimbledon, and if he plays near his best he could be an immensely difficult opponent for Murray. If he does not play well, then Gasquet will simply be philosophical. "I want to do my best. I want to finish my career I don't know when, and to say then that I did my best. That's what I will try to do. When I play Andy it will probably be on Centre Court and I know the two players are great players, so it will be a great match."