With the arrival of the Monte-Carlo Masters, the tennis season officially shifts to clay courts. That also means an uptick in the winnings of Rafael Nadal, the Spaniard who is the best player, now or at any other time in the history of the sport, on the clay surface. At this writing, we are working our way through the second day of the Round of 64 matches in the men’s singles, with plenty of drama yet to come.
Let’s take a look at the draw as well as thoughts on your best Tennis Betting choices.
Tennis News: ATP Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters Update
The main draw is set up to lead Novak Djokovic all the way to the semifinal. The greatest threat that he might face is the likes of Hubert Hurkacz. It is true that anything can happen, and that this is why we play the matches, but the smart money will have Djokovic rolling all the way to the last four. At that point, there are five interesting individuals who could emerge to face him.
This means, of course, that Rafael Nadal has an unusual position as the three-seed. Even with the long layoff, though, he remains the person to beat on clay, and he leads the third section on the draw. The fourth section could have the greatest likelihood of upsets, as Daniil Medvedev, the favorite to emerge — despite the fact that he has had problems on clay. We could see, from this side of the bracket, a semifinal between Nadal and Fabio Fognini, which would be a reprise of one of the 2019 semifinals.
Are you looking for a dark horse to pull off an early upset? Lorenzo Sonego meets Alexander Zverev in the second round on April 14, and this is an intriguing matchup. He won the Sardegna Open on Sunday — a clay court tune-up for the Monte-Carlo Masters. There are times when the winner of the tune-up tournament ends up falling in the first round, because of the drop-off in adrenaline (and the accumulation of fatigue), but Sonego came right in and beat Marton Fucsovics in straight sets on Tuesday in the first round. Sonego is ranked #28 in the world, while Zverev sits at #6. Zverev has not played any matches on clay yet; his last tournament was the Miami Open, where he got sent home in the first round by Emil Ruusuvuori in a shocking upset. Zverev’s best surface may be clay — two of three wins in Masters events have come on the surface, in Rome in 2017 and Madrid a year later. However, he enters this matchup with just one clay match in his pocket, while Sonego comes in after winning a clay event. Sonego should push Zverev — and he could well be worth the value of an upset wager.
Another interesting second-round match pits Fognini, who won the whole thing in 2019, against Jordan Thompson. Fognini had a tough opener against Miomir Kecmanovic, and while Fognini would end up winning in straight sets, it was not as easy as the final results indicated. Thompson, currently ranked #63 in the world, needed three sets to send Benoit Paire home in the first round, a match that featured two lengthy tiebreaks, already draining some of the gas out of Thompson’s tank. Fognini and Thompson met in the second round of the 2020 Australian Open, with Fognini winning in a five-set thriller. Now that the two are on clay, though, Fognini should win a bit more easily, but don’t count out Thompson’s competitiveness.
Novak Djokovic faces Jannik Sinner, 19 years old, in the second round. Sinner advanced to the final of the Miami Open Masters in his last tournament, and he started this event on a tear as well, running Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who has advanced to a Monte-Carlo Masters final in the past, out of the tournament in straight sets, giving himself one of the most significant tests of his career. Djokovic makes his first tournament appearance since winning the Australian Open in February, and so this will be his first clay event of the season. Djokovic did win Madrid, the Cincinnati Open and the Rome Masters a year ago, and he has won at Monte-Carlo twice. Djokovic should win in straight sets, but this could be a lot of fun to watch.
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