21st-seeded Richard Gasquet, who had a semifinal run in 2007 as his best result at the All England Club, advanced today to the third round of The Championships, making light work of the world number 163, Kenny De Schepper, a regular at the Challenger Tour with a round of 16 campaign at Wimbledon as his best result above that level.

Gasquet, who notched his 400th career win last month at the Queen's Club, steamrolled over his opponent in the first set, winning the absolute minimum points – 24 – to claim the set in only 18 minutes, as De Schepper failed to even force a deuce situation, whether on Gasquet’s serve or his own.

The second set brought more balance to the table, but still, despite featuring three more games than the previous frame's bagel, lasted only seven minutes longer. Once again, the world number 20 did not serve at deuce, as he alternated holds from love, 15 and 30, while breaking the Bordeaux native in the sixth game, firing two backhand winners and counting on two unforced errors in the process.

The third set was a 34-minute affair, but Gasquet’s solid day on serve continued until the last moments of the match. Despite facing a 40-all situation for the first time during this frame, he easily held his games until serving for the match, at 5/2, right after his competition’s serve for the fourth time. In the 8th game, with the match on the line, the 29-year-old French failed to serve it out, as three unforced errors proved to be too much for him to overcome.

The very next game, however, he was back returning De Schepper’s serves and had no trouble closing the match at 30, powered by a backhand winner, breaking the 27-yea- old one final time.

Gasquet, who dispatched Australia’s young gun Luke Saville in the first round, now advances to face fellow a fellow player with the one-handed backhand, Grigor Dimitrov, a player who also drew comparisons to Roger Federer since his youth. Despite the Bulgarian currently having the edge in ranking and seeding, their head-to-head is all Gasquet: the French won all of their four meetings so far. However, the last time both men squared off was on clay, in Rome, all the way back in 2013, before Grigor’s breakthrough. 

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About the author
Pete Liguori
Sports writer for the Racing and Tennis sections on VAVEL. Also a huge baseball and football fan. Trying to live the Big City dream. Follow me on Twitter, chaps: @PeteUSSports