The ATP Monte Carlo Masters and start of the European clay court season this year coincide with golf’s Masters tournament in Augusta. While the latter has been less preoccupied with who will win and more with the fate of absent former champion Tiger Woods and his drug rehabilitation, Monte Carlo has been consumed by speculation about Carlos Alcaraz’s teetering No 1 crown.
Given his lofty standards, his disappointing performance at the Indian Wells and Miami Masters, which world No 2 Jannik Sinner won, the Spaniard is under pressure to retain his Monte Carlo title, to maintain pole ranking position.
“To be honest, I’m going to lose No 1 — this tournament or the next. I’m defending a bunch of points — even if I defend them, Jannik is going to add some points at these tournaments, where he doesn’t have to defend any points.”
Alcaraz has 3,300 odd points to defend across the rest of the clay swing, whereas the Italian will be defending only 1,950. The world No 1 added: “He [Sinner] is going to be hungry for anything on clay — those are the trophies he misses on his belt.”
Both are off to a belting start in the principality. Alcaraz felled Argentinian Sebastian Baez 6-1 6-3 and Sinner made equally short shrift of France’s Ugo Humbert, 6-3 6-0.
Sadly, former world No 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas, not short of notches on his own belt at this venue having won Monte Carlo three times, did not fare as well in round one, where he was ousted by another Argentinian, Francisco Cerundolo, 7-5 6-4.
His inability to again reach the quarters, with an abysmal 2025 season, in which he won only two matches in all the Slams, will plummet him to below 50 in the rankings.
Commentator Mark Petchey identified Tsitsipas’ overriding problem as being “his inability to win break points…. He’s down to 34% and uncertainty is the big differential on big points.”
There was a round-one mental explosion by former world No 10 Daniil Medvedev, recently enjoying a return to form on hard courts, in winning Dubai & Brisbane. However, the Russian, with admittedly little practice on clay, was dealt the ultimate hiding, a double bagel, 6-0 6-0 — a scoreline he’s never before experienced — dished out by former Italian No 1 Matteo Berretini.
This sparked a temper tantrum of titanic proportions, during which Medvedev threw his racket several times, in several directions, smashing it to smithereens upon each retrieval, guaranteeing a code violation for unsportsmanlike behaviour and a hefty fine.
On a more uplifting note, two Monte Carlo Next Gen debutantes, displaying impeccable court etiquette — Joao Fonseca, already a household name in Brazil, and Belgian qualifier Alexander Blockx — have raised the roof in reaching round three.
Blockx felled former top 10 player Denis Shapovalov 6-4 4-6 6-3, and then proceeded to thrash No 13 Flavio Cobolli 6-3 6-3. As for Fonseca, he downed Gabriel Diablo and clocked up a clutch win against dangerous Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, (who had previously eclipsed 15th seed Karen Khachanov) 7-5 6-4.
Yet the most edifying victory of week one, from a French perspective, was world No 23 Valentin Vacherot’s demolition of fourth seed and 2025 finalist Lorenzo Musetti.
Further afield, on the WTA clay circuit in Charleston, the glaring absence of the most dominant player on clay, Iga Swiatek, has also got tongues wagging. The Pole, in attempting to climb out of a spiralling crisis in confidence, has chosen the greatest clay court player of all time, Rafa Nadal and his Majorcan academy to get her mind, over and above her game, right.
Indeed, it is interesting that the ghost of former No 1 Swiatek casts such a long shadow over the pending top 10 Madrid lineup. “The Polish Pretzel” is making huge strides towards regaining her best clay form under the Spaniard’s tutelage, much to the consternation of US world Nos 3 and 9, Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys.
“This [training with Nadal] should be illegal”!
Ironic when one considers it’s the WTA that has pushed for equality across the board — equal pay, equal representation — female umpires chairing men’s matches, female coaches coaching male top 10 — Amélie Mauresmo coached Andy Murray when he was number one.
So hang on to your crowns Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka, because Sinner and Swiatek have you in their sights.
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