Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Richard Gasquet Wimbledon Odds, Preview, Prediction (July 2)

Van de Zandschulp vs. Gasquet Odds

Richard Gasquet is once again feeling good on the grass at Wimbledon. The two-time semifinalist is on to his ninth career third round here at the All England Club, but at age 36 it's hard to expect much more out of the Frenchman.

The veteran will square off with Botic van de Zandschulp in a match where oddsmakers don't give him much of a chance. Let's determine whether that's a good call.

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Gasquet Playing Below His Age

Gasquet is still kicking at 36 years young, and he's still a threat to the best players on tour.

Earlier this year, he wiped out Ugo Humbert twice and took a set from Andrey Rublev in the early-season hard court swing. When the tour turned to clay, he picked up a whopping 12 wins across the ATP and Challenger levels, taking out Daniil Medvedev in Geneva and Tommy Paul in Estoril.

While it seemed the turn to grass could be troublesome given the mileage on Gasquet this year, the Frenchman turned right around and not only won a five-set match in the first round but won a four-setter in round two over a very solid player in Mackenzie McDonald.

Gasquet's backhand is firm and flat which makes it a very dangerous weapon on this surface. The only thing that can stop him, really, is his body. At this point, even with a day of rest between his matches, he's at risk of losing it in an extended battle.

He's done well to quiet those doubters through two rounds, but there's only so much tennis that he can play.

Van De Zandschulp Rising To New Challenge

If you wanted to create a tennis player for today's game, and particularly for a hard or grass court, you'd probably land on someone very similar van de Zandschulp.

He's a tall guy who packs a huge punch on his serve and rockets forehands deep into the court, finding exquisite angles with his whipping motion and hitting balls that can be downright impossible to return.

Van de Zandschulp rose into the top 50 with a storybook run at the US Open and he has done well to back that up with some big wins this year and good results like a run to the final in Munich and the semis at Queen's Club.

Speaking of which, van de Zandschulp has been solid on grass this year. He hasn't really had a bad loss with Matteo Berrettini, Emil Ruusuvuori and Marcos Giron taking him out, and he's taken down some fighters like Grigor Dimitrov and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Van de Zandschulp was very convincing in avenging his defeat to Ruusuvuori in the second round of Wimbledon with a no-nonsense four-set victory, and his win over Feliciano Lopez was also somewhat impressive given the Spaniard's strong tools on grass.

Betting Value

Van de Zandschulp has met Gasquet before. It came this year, at the Australian Open. In that contest, the Dutchman dropped the first set prior to utterly dominating Gasquet before the veteran had to retire due to injury.

Quite honestly, a similar scene could unfold here. It's entirely possible that Gasquet has been pushed as far as he can go physically. While I'd love to take a moneyline bet here to protect against that, most books grade all retirements as a void these days anyway, and the price is a bit too steep.

I'll happily lay the games here. While Gasquet packs a punch on his serve, so does Lopez — another veteran — and van de Zandschulp had no issues on return there. He can easily cover this in what I view as a three-set victory.

Gasquet had won just one match in his last four trips to Wimbledon prior to this year, and he isn't cut out to face a level this high.

Pick: Van De Zandschulp -3.5 Games (-130)