French Open in Paris, 2nd round, Thursday, 29.05.2025, 1:10 p.m.
Jannik Sinner must face the next local hero after his opening victory against Arthur Rinderknech. He will meet Richard Gasquet and is likely to be the last player to compete in a professional match against the veteran.
After Roland Garros, the man known for his quick grip changes, among other things, will hang up his racket. He wants to show his best tennis one last time.
I don’t expect the number 1 to give him a total thrashing, so I’m going for a Gasquet win with a +10.5 game advantage. VBET has the right odds on offer.
At 38, it’s over! Gasquet is facing the last match of his long career. With odds of 16.7 and higher, he is the clear underdog against Sinner, for whom we can’t even get odds of 1.01, depending on the bookmaker.
Even for the -1.5 set handicap or a straight 3-0 win for Sinner (1.25), we can’t get any attractive single odds. The latter option is still available for a combination bet, but be careful: the man from Beziers wants to give it his all in his final act!
And Gasquet put in a really good performance in the first round, defeating his compatriot Terence Atmane in four sets, winning eight breaks out of a total of 17 opportunities and conceding just three himself.
Due to the enormous difference in the odds for victory, even with a big virtual lead for Gasquet, the odds are still high. I find the +10.5 mark for odds of 1.60 particularly interesting. That means he could still lose 2-6, 3-6, 3-6, for example, which would be very clear.
The two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist, who reached his highest ranking of seventh in 2008, already faced Sinner in the second round in Paris last year. He lost in three sets, but the +10.5 handicap was not in danger at the time.
In Halle a year earlier, he even managed to take a set off Sinner, and on hard court he forced him into a tiebreak in Indian Wells in 2023. So he hasn’t done too badly against the South Tyrolean so far.
However, he has only lost one of his 14 matches this year – and that was the Rome final against Carlos Alcaraz. Clay is still the surface on which the world number one is most likely to be troubled. Rinderknech managed to do that in the first round in Paris.
To the delight of the fans on Court Philippe-Chatrier, he led 4-0 in the third set, but despite the double break, he lost the set before a tiebreak. Sinner turned up the heat once again. However, his previous matches were not flawless.
In addition to his brief weak phase against Rinderknech and his straight-sets defeat against Alcaraz in the clash of the titans of the new tennis generation, he also dropped a set against Tommy Paul in the semi-finals, starting the match 1-6 down.
Five of Sinner’s last six opponents have managed to take two service games off the number one. On clay, that’s still a good result from the high-flyer’s perspective, but it shows that he’s not totally dominant on the red clay, which is why I definitely see value in a handicap bet on Gasquet.
I wouldn’t rule out Gasquet winning the set (3.70) with home advantage and the liberating feeling that he is playing his last match. However, I would only approach this with a free bet, i.e. without risking losing your stake.
It’s good that we have a number of betting providers in our portfolio that offer free bets before you make your first deposit. The highest, without having to deposit a cent, is available at Betano. There, you will be credited with a $20 free bet after verification.
My Sinner Gasquet tip
Gasquet will use all his experience to keep the rallies short and score quick points. However, against the fast defensive artist, he will need to take some high-risk shots, which will inevitably lead to a few mistakes.
Sinner’s recent matches on clay have not been flawless, however, and with a win rate of 66 percent, he is statistically still at his weakest on this surface.
In their first three encounters, Gasquet gave Sinner a few tough sets. I expect him to give it his all before the end of his career.
Perhaps we can even hope that the South Tyrolean will let the result end on a polite note in his last match against Gasquet. Either way, Gasquet should be able to get the job done with a comfortable 10.5 game advantage from VBET.
My Sinner Gasquet prediction: Gasquet win (+10.5 games HC)
