tennis | Monday, October 31, 2022 9:25 AM (Revised at: Monday, October 31, 2022 12:41 PM)

Monday Tennis Best Bet: ATP Paris, Richard Gasquet vs Alex Molcan

Jon Reid

Richard Gasquet vs. Alex Molcan Best Bet: Monday, October 31st

Nice win for Roberto Bautista Agut on Friday. The scoreline may seem close, but that was largely a byproduct of the Spaniard only converting two of his 14 break-point opportunities. It was, for all intents and purposes, the one-way traffic I expected.

For the upcoming week, we head to Paris, where the ATP plays its final Masters event of the season. For Monday’s selection, we’ll take a look at the match between Richard Gasquet and Alex Molcan.

In this article:

Richard Gasquet vs Alex Molcan Preview
Richard Gasquet vs Alex Molcan Best Bet

Richard Gasquet vs Alex Molcan Preview

October 31st, 14:00 UK Time

Great chance for the veteran Frenchman to get a Masters-level win on home soil in this first-round match.

With the courts playing relatively slowly most years in Paris, and Molcan not possessing the requisite firepower to hit the 36-year-old off the court, Gasquet will fancy his chances.

Regardless of what one wants to look at, it’s hard to come away from handicapping this match, believing that Gasquet should only be a 2.5-game favourite.

Molcan’s struggles on hard courts this summer and fall have been rather pronounced. He’s just 2-5 on tour since playing the post-French Open clay events, including relatively routine losses to Thiago Monteiro, Arthur Rinderknech and J.J. Wolf while losing in three sets to the horribly out-of-form Diego Schwartzman. Yet against Gasquet, who is arguably as good on hard courts at the moment as any of those players, Molcan is only a slight underdog in the handicap market.

As for the matchup, once again, it sets up fairly decently for the Frenchman. The lighter-hitting, underpowered Slovakian won’t be able to rush Gasquet, nor hit through him.

Then there’s the fact that 2022 has seen Molcan attempt to add more aggression to his game in an effort to be seen less as a clay-court specialist and add some surface versatility to his game. The result? More errors without adding nearly as many easy, cheap points.

Finally, without a lot of power, he simply doesn’t have the ability to take time away from Gasquet on his backhand wing, where the veteran plays with one of the more well-known one-handed backhands on tour.

With enough time to set that shot up, Gasquet should have plenty of looks to hit that shot down the line – a tactic he’s employed with aplomb over the years. Not only should that find him a few winners, but even if Molcan does track those shots down, he’ll be on his backhand wing as a southpaw, allowing Gasquet to seize control of the point.

Richard Gasquet vs Alex Molcan Best Bet

I think this pricing gives Molcan a bit too much credit for the style he plays, the errors he commits and the form he’s in at the moment.

It was even worse – with the opening handicap being just -1.5 games. The market has done a decent job moving this one closer to efficiency, but with these hard courts being a tad slower (Molcan was broken by the likes of Rinderknech rather easily, even in quick conditions), I’m not sure why this isn’t at -3.5 games.

I’m happy to give the Slovakian a slight head start to back the veteran playing in front of what is sure to be a supportive home crowd for Gasquet.