French Open R3 previews and predictions: Nadal vs. Gasquet, Schwartzman vs. Coric

This may not be a good thing for Richard Gasquet, but the Frenchman will get a 16th career shot at Rafael Nadal on Saturday at Roland Garros. Diego Schwartzman and Borna Coric are also aiming for a place in the fourth round.

(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (30) Richard Gasquet

Does anybody beat Richard Gasquet 16 times in a row? Well, Rafael Nadal probably does. The head-to-head series stands at an overwhelming 15-0 in Nadal’s favor as the good friends and familiar foes head into a third-round French Open showdown on Saturday. Six of the Spaniard’s 15 wins have come on clay, a surface on which he is unsurprisingly crushing Gasquet 14-2 in total sets and 12-0 in their last 12 sets. The two veterans have not faced each other on the slow stuff since 2011 and their most recent meeting of any kind came last summer in Cincinnati, where Nadal coasted 6-3, 6-4.

Roland Garros, of course, is the last place where Gasquet would want to attempt to turn things around against his nemesis. Nadal is a well-documented 81-2 lifetime with 10 titles, and he is also 106-2 in best-of-five matches on clay to go along with a 21-1 record on clay this season. The world No. 1, who recently triumphed in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome, has defeated Simone Bolelli and Guido Pella in straight sets so far in Paris. Gasquet had no trouble disposing of decent opponents in Andreas Seppi and Malek Jaziri, which is somewhat surprising given that the 32nd-ranked Frenchman had been 1-4 in his last five matches prior to arriving in Paris. As usual, Gasquet will be unable to hit his one-handed backhand against Nadal like he does against other opponents and another straight-set beatdown will almost certainly be in the cards.

Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 8-10 games

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(11) Diego Schwartzman vs. Borna Coric

In terms of number of games lost, the 12th-ranked Schwartzman has been the most dominant player at Roland Garros–yes, even more dominant than Nadal (Fabio Fognini is actually No. 2 in fewest games lost). Of course, the draw has something to do with that. The 25-year-old has benefited from facing world No. 130 Calvin Hemery and world No. 185 Adam Pavlasek, hammering the former 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 before disposing of the latter by the exact same 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 scoreline. Schwartzman is now 20-12 this season, with a title on the red clay of Rio de Janeiro and a fourth-round performance at the Australian Open.

Up next for the 11th seed on Saturday is a third career meeting with Coric, who leads the head-to-head series 2-0. The 21-year-old cruised 6-2, 6-1 at the 2015 Winston-Salem event before picking up a 6-3, 6-2 victory last spring in Marrakech. Although age would arguably indicate that Coric should have made even bigger improvements than Schwartzman since those encounters, that is not the case. The Croat has stalled at No. 40 in the rankings after climbing as high as 33rd back in the summer of 2015. He is a modest 5-4 on clay in 2018 following four-set wins this fortnight over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Thomas Fabbiano. Schwartzman is playing way too well for Coric to finish this one quickly, and in a long, drawn-out baseline battle it is the Argentine who would likely have an edge in the physical department.

Pick: Schwartzman in 5

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