Australian Open: Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Richard Gasquet 1/20/22 Tennis Prediction

Botic van de Zandschulp faces Richard Gasquet in the second round of the 2022 Australian Open on Thursday, January 20th 2022.

Will we see a great performance as Richard Gasquet aims to find his best tennis, or will Botic van de Zandschulp come out and outpower the experienced Frenchman?

Richard Gasquet shocked most of the tennis fans in his first round match, being able to beat a younger and in form Frenchman, Ugo Humbert in 4 sets. Richard, in his prime, could have run laps around Ugo, but we did not expect him to be able to do so at this period in his career. Richard has a great groundstroke game and he will come out here in this second round knowing that he needs to ensure he can move Botic around and tire the big guy out.

Botic van de Zandschulp did not spend much time on court in his opening match, beating the German, Jan-Lennard Struff, in 3 easy sets. Botic is a great player on his day, having made the semifinals of the US Open last year, and having beaten the likes of Andrey Rublev a few months ago as well. Botic will know that in these conditions he can go far when he is at his best, but he will also know that experienced players are always tough to beat.

This is going to be the 1st meeting between both players, with an exciting encounter on our hands. If this was Botic at his current level against Richard in his prime, this would be an easy win for Richard. However, Richard is towards the end of his career and he does not have the game anymore to make it as far as he would like to in these big tournaments. I think that his opening win was somewhat of a fluke, and Botic will not see any major issues here.