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The French connection: Gasquet v Mathieu

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Perfecseun previews the all-French encounter as Gasquet takes on Mathieu in Madrid

R. Gasquet (France) vs P.H. Mathieu (France)

Friendship will be left in the locker room when these two french players hit the court to fight out a place in the third round of the Madrid Masters. Both players have different agenda; Gasquet hoping to make a late charge for a place in Shanghai and Mathieu finishing the year on a career high ranking inside the top 20.

Mathieu has had a brilliant year, moving from 55 on the ranking table to 21. He won 2 ATP titles this year and has had good runs in some tournaments as well. The French number two is in good form on hard courts as he showed last week when he made the final at Moscow before losing to Davydenko. There is huge potential in Mathieu but playing the big points has always been his achilles heel: he had match points against Murray at Miami in the second set but still lost the match.

Like his opponent today, Gasquet is a player that does have problems with consistency and focus. He has the game to be a regular inside the top 10 but has failed to deliver the right results when it has mattered most. It has been a mixed year for the top ranked french player but all in all, a good one.

Gasquet has beaten Mathieu three times, twice this year alone. The general assumption is that Gasquet should win this match but with Mathieu finding some form again that took him to a final last week, it wont be a walk in the park for Gasquet; he won all his matches in 2 sets on his way to the final at Tokyo but could only manage to win 3 games in the finals against Ferrer.

Suggested Bet: Lay Gasquet to win 2-0 sets @ 2.02