Second-round action at the Monte-Carlo Masters gets underway on Tuesday, when top seed Alexander Zverev faces a rough draw against Matteo Berrettini. Frances Tiafoe and Miomir Kecmanovic are still in the first round.
(1) Alexander Zverev vs. Matteo Berrettini
At No. 34 in the world, Berrettini is on the verge of getting seeded at Grand Slams–but it won’t help him at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. With Berrettini unseeded, the result is a bad draw for both him and Zverev. They will face each other in the second round of the clay-court swing’s first Masters 1000 tournament on Tuesday, marking their seventh encounter. Zverev leads the head-to-head series 4-2 (2-1 on clay), but his last win came in 2021 and Berrettini won their most recent contest 6-3, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) two years ago at Wimbledon.
Since finishing runner-up to Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open, Zverev has been a complete disaster. The second-ranked German is 6-6 in his last 12 matches, making no headway whatsoever toward the No. 1 ranking even though Sinner is suspended for three months. Meanwhile, Berrettini is coming off a quarterfinal performance in Miami and already has a victory under his belt in Monte-Carlo after defeating Mariano Navone 6-4, 6-4 on Monday. That means the 34th-ranked Italian is used to the conditions, whereas Zverev has not yet taken the court following his bye. This is a great opportunity for Berrettini to pull off an upset at the expense of a struggling opponent.
Pick: Berrettini in 3
(14) Frances Tiafoe vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
It will be a quick turnaround for Tiafoe after he finished runner-up to Jenson Brooksby on Sunday in Houston. Physical and mental fatigue is almost certain to plague the 17th-ranked American with only one day off in between tournaments and travel between two different continents.
Up first for Tiafoe in Monte-Carlo is a fifth contest against Kecmanovic, who is getting swept 4-0 in the head-to-head series at the ATP level but does own a Challenger win over Tiafoe. They have never faced each other on clay, a surface on which both players are decent but unspectacular. Overall, Kecmanovic is in solid form–the 47th-ranked Serb has won 12 main-tour matches in 2025 and lifted the trophy in Delray Beach. Mainly because of Tiafoe’s situation, this will likely be one-way traffic for Kecmanovic.
Pick: Kecmanovic in 2
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