Friday preview: Serve key for Kyrgios against Gasquet

10:26 AM ET

The third round of the French Open gets underway with a particularly strong menu of interesting matches on the men’s docket. Form has held up on the ATP, with No. 10 seed Marin Cilic’s loss the only mild surprise, while the WTA has seen its share of top seeds flop.

Here’s a look at three of the more compelling Friday matchups:

No. 9 Richard Gasquet versus No. 17 Nick KyrgiosDennis Grombkowski/Getty Images

Anyone who remembers the matches these men split at Wimbledon will relish the renewal of their Grand Slam rivalry, this time on slow red clay. It would seem that the Frenchman Gasquet would enjoy a home-court advantage at Roland Garros, but he’s one of the local favorites who also has had trouble living up expectations. A Wimbledon and US Open semifinalist, he has never even made the quarterfinals in Paris.

But this isn’t the right time to bash Gasquet. The 29-year-old has salted away a pair of wins over solid clay-court aficionados in Thomaz Bellucci and former French Open junior champ Bjorn Fratangelo. Gasquet had almost twice as many winners as unforced errors in the win over Fratangelo (41-23).

Kyrgios also has been smoking hot. He hasn’t lost a set and surrendered just six games to his second-round opponent, Igor Sijsling. Kyrgios is just 21, but his game is approaching critical mass. The flamboyant Aussie now also seems to understand that creating controversy is injurious to his game as well as his reputation.

The most startling facet of Kyrgios’ game has been the extent to which his serve has dominated his matches. He’s made 67 percent of his first serves, winning 80 percent of those points and claimed an almost unheard of 71 percent of his second-serve points. His serve …

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