The clay-court swing ratchets up to a whole new level when the Monte-Carlo Masters takes over the tennis world this week. After most of the top players sat out Houston and Marrakech, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Dominic Thiem are among those back in action. Roger Federer’s return to clay will have to wait a few more weeks, but the aforementioned trio is joined in a strong Monte-Carlo field by Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitispas, Stan Wawrinka, and many others.
Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters
Where: Monte-Carlo, Monaco
Surface: Clay
Points: 1000
Prize money: 5,207,405 Euros
Top seed: Novak Djokovic
Defending champion: Rafael Nadal
Draw analysis: Djokovic has now endured early losses in Indian Wells and Miami in back-to-back years. The current situation is nowhere near as dire as 2018, but it still leaves the top-ranked Serb in a bit of doubt as he prepares for European clay. And the Monte-Carlo draw certainly did not do him any favors. Up first for Djokovic could be Philipp Kohlschreiber, who knocked him out of last month’s Indian Wells Masters. The top seed also finds himself in a top quarter with Tsitsipas and in the same half as Thiem. Even a third-round date with either Kyle Edmund, Diego Schwartzman, or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga could present some problems.
That leaves Nadal sitting pretty at the bottom of the bracket—as if the 11-time Monte-Carlo champion needed any extra help. His one min roadblock prior to championship Sunday could come in the form of Wawrinka, a potential quarterfinal opponent who is a former winner in the principality. The other top-eight seeds in Nadal’s half (Zverev, Kei Nishikori, and Marin Cilic) are all in somewhere between lackluster and dreadful at the moment, so it’s difficult to forecast the Spaniard’s possible semifinal foe. Don’t be surprised if it turns out to be Borna Coric or a red-hot Felix Auger-Aliassime.
First-round upset alert: (Q) Andrey Rublev over (13) Fabio Fognini. Due to both his talent level and volatility, Fognini is one of those guys who can beat anyone and also lose to anyone on any given day. It’s been mostly on the bad end of that spectrum this season for the Italian, who is sporting a 4-8 record and just lost to Jiri Vesely in the Marrakech first round. Rublev already has two Monte-Carlo wins under his belt, having defeated Bernard Tomic and Ugo Humbert.
Hot: Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev, Radu Albot
Cold: Alexander Zverev, Marin Cilic, Karen Khachanov, Grigor Dimitrov, Taylor Fritz
Quarterfinal predictions: Novak Djokovic over Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dominic Thiem over Nikoloz Basilashvili, Borna Coric over Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Rafael Nadal over Stan Wawrinka
Semifinals: Thiem over Djokovic and Nadal over Coric
Final: Nadal over Thiem
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who ya got?
Go rafa!!!☺
Hi to all the lovely people here. Haven’t been following tennis at all but hoping rafa can kick ass for the whole clay season.
Good news to hear that the Prince of Darkness lost early at IW and Miami! (Sorry rc!!)
#12 is my new favourite number..
You seem to like #12 so much that you posted it at 12:12pm EDT
Gosh so I did! Is that some kind of sign?!
I am on British time but that doesn’t take away from the weird coincidence!
Prince of Darkness …Im offended by that, as a Nole fan.
You’re so obviously a biased Nadal fan, who’s not interested in objective tennis discussion, which is what I try to do.
Seriously!? It was obviously a joke for heavens sake! Haven’t noticed you defending Nole against attacks when I was the one defending him. Ie during RG last year when I defended him against multiple attacks on multiple occasions and you were there every day without saying a word in his defence.
So at least be honest!
Oh and I have not only defended Nole on this site on countless occasions I have also repeatedly defended Fed! I have actually been accused of being primarily a Nole fan by rafa diehards. So you are miles off base as always.
There’s such a thing as deserved criticism.eg Players not trying hard enough, even your favourite.Thats what I meant by objective.
So, having defended Nole and Fed, are you going to give them credit in the unlikely event of them beating Rafa at RG? Or are you going to blame injury etc? We’ll see!
Rafa!!!
So I just looked up what has been happening to rafa. He had to withdraw from IW with a knee injury, that’s bad news. I just read a great interview with Toni in which he said: ‘rafa is not a tennis player. He is an injured person who plays tennis.’That’s a pithy, exact and frightening description.
I pray (not literally) that he can make a good run through the clay season. Love Rafa!💖💖
Amy hi there, i hope he does too, and i dont care who he beats either, just as long as he has a great CC season, strang words from Toni too hmm ….
Hi Alison! No I don’t care who he beats either just want to see him munch up the competition! Good to see you😊
^ Strange lol ^ ….
https://www.facebook.com/fernandoverdasco.esp/videos/275091556770801/?t=14 off topic but ill post it here, Fernando Verdasco has become a father ….
Thanks Amy you too honey xx 😉
XXX Alison
I can’t wait to see Rafa on the clay again! I read some comments on VB from Uncle Toni. I am not sure what to make of them. His practices seem to be going well. I just hope that Rafa is healthy again for the clay season.
Watch Rafa’s pre tournament presser. He says Toni apologized for those comments. Toni gives a lot of speeches at corporate events and sometimes “makes a mistake”. Rafa says he understands, that everybody, including himself, makes mistakes sometimes.
Ramara,
I was just on VB and read that Uncle Toni apologized for saying that Rafa is an injured person playing tennis. They said Rafa was not happy about him saying that. I don’t blame him!
Good to see you here nny!!☺
I haven’t been here in ages!
Vamos Rafa!
Xxx
amy,
Great to see you here, too! I haven’t been on here much either.
😍
Just because of how the last 2 clay swings went, I’ll predict that Rafa only loses at one of the 3 clay Masters tournies, and wins everything else. Just like last season, it’s extremely tempting for me to predict once again that he sweeps all 4 of the big clay events (a la 2010), but just for funsies I will predict one loss, maybe at Madrid, likely to either Thiem or Djokovic. Last year I felt absolutely CERTAIN that Rafa would sweep it all, but I was wrong. As dominant as Rafa is on clay, I think it can be easy to underestimate just how difficult it is to go undefeated through the whole clay season. Given my luck, now that I’ve actually predicted that he won’t sweep it all, he will probably go and sweep! 😂
That being said, I do not see that 1 loss I am “predicting” (more like guessing) happened at THIS tournament. That means I am picking Rafa win Monte Carlo. I think it will be against either Thiem or Djokovic in the Final. I do believe, however, that Thiem is in serious danger of getting kicked out early by Klizan. Klizan beat Thiem in 3 sets last season on clay! Sure, Thiem won their last meeting, but it was on hardcourt. Plus, Klizan leads their head to head overall, 3-1. Given that he beat Thiem last year on clay, this match could be really close! I am still picking Thiem to come through that match, but people should be on upset watch here!
Thrilled to see Rafa back on the courts, and I loved his great comments about Tiger’s win at Augusta….but Thiem wins it all in MC!
Maybe, but I don’t think so. Thiem’s always been better in Madrid or Rome but he takes out Rafa then Zverev swoops in and wins the tournament. That could change this year though.
Was not Thiem’s day – those pesky Serbs, lol! Too bad, I would have liked to see Djoko v Thiem but I think there’s some sort of national law that prevents other Serbs from beating Djoko. Kinda like Spaniards v Rafa.
Novak is starting to heat up, and with Thiem out he’s got a clear path to the final. He’s my pick to win the tournament at this point.