In a crazy match, where he lost the first set and trailed 4-1 in the last, Gasquet, each time, reversed the situation to finally win on his first match point.
"It's an incredible feeling. I played my best tennis throughout the week, but especially today," said the Biterrois, who is only the second title on hard surface outdoors. .
Thanks to this trophy, the first he has lifted since the one won in 's-Hertogenbosch in June 2018, Gasquet seizes several records.
He indeed becomes the oldest French winner of an ATP tournament, and becomes the French N.1 – which had not happened to him since July 2016 – the oldest.
Current 67th in the world, Gasquet will start the Australian Open on Monday in 42nd place in the rankings, returning to the ATP top 50 from which he left in April 2021.
In the final against Norrie, 27, it all came down to the eighth game of the last set.
Led 4-3, Gasquet erased five break points, won his face-off and immediately took his opponent's to widen a definitive gap (5-3).
"In the third set, starting at 0-3, I didn't miss a single shot, it was just crazy," he explained.
"I just wanted to win this match. It's always difficult to conclude a match, especially in the final, so I said to myself: 'You have to win this match, anything can happen afterwards.'
Richard Gasquet kisses the winner's cup of the Auckland tournament on January 14, 2023 in Auckland © MICHAEL BRADLEY / AFP
With this victory, Richard Gasquet will start the Australian Open on Tuesday against his compatriot Ugo Humbert.
If he has, during his twenty years on the circuit, reached three Grand Slam semi-finals, he has never exceeded the eighth in Melbourne.
© 2023 AFP