2018 ATP Rolex Monte Carlo Masters Betting Preview

This coming Sunday marks the opening of the 2018 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, the 112th edition of this clay court, outdoor tennis tournament. The matches all take place at the Monte Carlo Country Club in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. Rafael Nadal won on the singles side in this tournament (which only has a men’s draw for singles and doubles) and returns as the top seed in an attempt to defend his title. The defending doubles winners are Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas, but they are not in the seeded entrants for this year’s event. We’ve put together a tennis betting preview for this tournament that includes the seeded players for singles and doubles and some thoughts as to your best bet for the winners.

2018 ATP Rolex Monte Carlo Masters Betting Preview

Singles Seeds

1. Rafael Nadal (Spain)
2. Marin Cilic (Croatia)
3. Alexander Zverev (Germany)
4. Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
5. Dominic Thiem (Austria)
6. David Goffin (Belgium)
7. Lucas Pouille (France)
8. Pablo Carreno Busta (Spain)
9. Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
10. Diego Schwartzman (Argentina)
11. Roberto Bautista Agut (Spain)
12. Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic)
13. Fabio Fognini (Italy)
14. Milos Raonic (Canada)
15. Albert Ramos Vinolas (Spain)
16. Adrian Mannarino (France)

In the singles field, Nadal seems at first like he would be hard to pick against. He’s the defending French Open champion (the only tennis major played on clay), and he has won 24 of his last 25 matches on this surface. He has not played, though, since the Australian Open, when he went out to Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals, having to retire in the fifth set due to a hip injury. He pulled out of February’s Mexican Open and sat out Indian Wells and Miami, so he could have a bit of rust. The hip injury was just the latest in a series of setbacks that finished 2017 for him. Marin Cilic entered the Rio de Janeiro tournament (on clay) as the top seed, but he lost to unseeded Gael Monfils (who had to withdraw from Monte Carlo) in just the second round. That was his last clay action. Since then, he went out in the second round at Indian Wells and in the third round at Miami, so it’s hard to get excited about him as a betting choice here. Alexander Zverev has not played on clay since Roland Garros in 2017, when he was bounced out in the first round by unseeded Fernando Verdasco. However, he did win in Rome two weeks before Roland Garros (also on clay), knocking off fifth-seeded Milos Raonic and second-seeded Novak Djokovic to win as a 16-seed. He made it to the finals of the Miami Masters his last time out, falling to John Isner. Grigor Dimitrov enters as the fourth seed despite having just won four of his last eight clay matches. His last clay action came at Roland Garros last year, as he beat two unseeded qualifiers before falling to 20th seed Pablo Carreno Busta. Before that, he lost in the first round in Rome and in the third round at Madrid, falling in the round of 16 to eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem. Once we see who the qualifiers are, then we’ll have a better sense of who your best dark horse choices are. If I’m picking a favorite right now, I’m going with Cilic because of the physical issues that Nadal continues to have. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Nadal go early simply because of his extended time away from competition.