METZ TENNIS

Most of you will know that I hold Richard Gasquet in very high regard and expect him to have a MASSIVE year in 2007.

However, today he faces fellow Frenchman, Arnaud Clement and the match could be much closer than current bookmaker odds, would suggest.

Richard admits to having problems playing friends and the two are close. In their only previous meeting earlier this year, Arnaud won in 3 sets, the stats were incredibly close. The only area in which either dominated, was Clement on 2nd serve, that may well be the deciding factor today.

Both have rested since the US Open, opened the tournament with strong wins and are competing in the doubles, so there should be no injury concerns.

Gasquet is a very likely top 5 player, but on his day, Clement is good, very good on hard courts and especially in his own country. 3 of his 4 ATP wins have come in France, all on hard courts.
These victories all came against top class hard court players, Rafter, Fernando Gonzalez, Ancic and Andrew Murray, in strong events.

Two were this year, in Marseille ( beat Gasquet,Nadal and Ancic) and Washington ( beat Hewitt, Safin and Murray), once he gets his teeth into a tournament, he is very hard to shake off. Arnaud also has an Australian Open final appearance to his credit.

His hard court form stands up to the very closest inspection, he like playing here and is a previous winner of the singles (2003) and doubles (2004).

This will be tough, but I really like the odds on offer and find myself unable to pass.

4 points Clement to beat Gasquet 3.0 general-expekt/centrebet, bigger will be available on the exchanges, currently 3.15 betfair.

Take a look at the Gasquet backhand, it is a thing of beauty, just hope it is not too "hot" today.

Back later.

Good Luck.