Wawrinka and Thiem Win, Norrie and Murray Out

Predominant draw motion on the Monte Carlo Masters is underway, with Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem capitalising on their wildcards by seeing off Tallon Griekspoor and Richard Gasquet, respectively.

Wawrinka, the 2014 champion, hadn’t gained a match on the Principality since 2019, however he recovered from a set all the way down to see off the Dutchman earlier than Thiem was an excessive amount of for Richard Gasquet within the battle of the one-handed backhands.

Elsewhere Cam Norrie, Dan Evans and Andy Murray fell cheaply of their opening matches, however Jack Draper recorded a powerful win towards Sebastian Baez and was the final Brit standing till he fell to Hubert Hurkacz in his spherical of thirty-two match.

Three different second-round matches are full: Djokovic began his clay courtroom marketing campaign with a win over qualifier Gakhov, Tsitsipas progressed after simply 5 video games when Bonzi retired, and Andrey Rublev recovered from a set all the way down to defeat Jaume Munar.

You’ll be able to see the first-round ends in full and the second-round outcomes up to now beneath:

Spherical of 64 Monte Carlo 2023 Outcomes

Winner
Loser
Scoreline

Karen Khachanov (9)
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
6-2 6-2

Hubert Hurkacz (10)
Laslo Djere
6-7(5) 7-6(5) 7-6(5)

Francisco Cerundolo
Cameron Norrie (11)
6-3 6-4

Alexander Zverev (13)
Alexander Bublik
3-6 6-2 6-4

Alex de Minaur (14)
Andy Murray
6-1 6-3

Nicolas Jarry
Borna Coric (15)
6-2 6-3

Lorenzo Musetti
Miomir Kecmanovic
7-6(1) 6-0

Roberto Bautista Agut
Filip Krajinovic (LL)
5-7 7-6(10) 6-1

Matteo Berrettini
Maxime Cressy
6-4 6-2

Benjamin Bonzi
Bernabe Zapata Miralles
6-1 7-5

Grigor Dimitrov
Ben Shelton
6-1 3-6 6-3

Jack Draper
Sebastian Baez
6-3 7-5

Ivan Gakhov (Q)
Mackenzie McDonald
7-6(6) 2-6 6-3

Ilya Ivashka (Q)
Daniel Evans
2-6 6-2 6-3

Jiri Lehecka
Emil Ruusuvuori (LL)
6-1 7-5

Jaume Munar
Marc-Andrea Huesler
7-6(3) 4-6 6-4

Luca Nardi (Q)
Valenin Vacherot (WC)
7-5 7-5

Alexei Popyrin (Q)
Dusan Lajovic (LL)
7-6(1) 6-3

Diego Schwartzman
David Goffin
6-4 6-2

Lorenzo Sonego (WC)
Ugo Humbert (Q)
3-6 7-5 7-5

Jan-Lennard Struff (Q)
Albert Ramos-Vinolas
6-4 6-3

Dominic Thiem (WC)
Richard Gasquet
6-1 6-4

Botic van de Zandschulp
Marton Fucsovics (Q)
3-6 7-6(2) 6-1

Stan Wawrinka (WC)
Tallon Griekspoor
5-7 6-3 6-4

Spherical of 32 Outcomes So Far

Winner
Loser
Scoreline

Stefanos Tsitsipas (2)
Benjamin Bonzi
4-1 (RET)

Novak Djokovic (1)
Ivan Gakhov
7-6(5) 6-2

Andrey Rublev (5)
Jaume Munar
4-6 6-2 6-2

Hubert Hurkacz (10)
Jack Draper
6-3 6-7(3) 7-5

Match of the Spherical

The shock match of the spherical was Ugo Humber vs Lorenzo Sonego, with the Italian saving 4 match factors to progress 3-6 7-5 7-5 in 2 hours and 58 minutes.

Humbert has little pedigree on clay however got here by means of qualifying, and I’m unsure how he didn’t recover from the road on this one. See for your self:

Thiem Units Rune Showdown

Dominic Thiem has had a woeful begin to 2023 however picked up a good 6-1, 6-4 victory over Richard Gasquet.

Thiem lastly gained back-to-back matches in Estoril earlier than Monte Carlo, and he moved effectively towards Gasquet; his groundstrokes don’t fairly look to have the efficiency of from 3 or 4 years again, however he nonetheless fired 18 winners en path to victory.

Will or not it’s sufficient to show the tide? Holger Rune will show a really stiff check within the subsequent spherical for the Austrian, and if he can no less than maintain his personal, then it would assist kick-start his yr, however I’d count on a win for the Danish.

De Minaur Mauls Murray

Andy Murray on clay has at all times been a combined bag, and he performed one in every of his poorer matches on Monday, falling to Alex de Minaur 6-1, 6-3.

The Brit entered Monte Carlo as a last-minute direct acceptance and has been coaching on clay in Marbella however judging by his efficiency, the juice isn’t well worth the squeeze, and it’d probably be a sensible transfer for him to give attention to the grass the place he can utilise his strengths, whereas clay tends to focus on his weaknesses.

I put numerous work in, within the low season, educated exhausting, and you realize, had continued that by means of the yr. There have been components of this yr which were a bit of bit difficult team-wise, however, like, within the build-up to Doha, for instance, as I spent, you realize, an excellent form of 10 days by myself on the courtroom and, you realize, had labored effectively and was working constantly on the issues I’d been doing within the low season, actually constructing on Australia and it was feeling good. However, since I completed in Indian Wells, issues have gone downhill and two dangerous performances. You’ll be able to lose matches and stuff. I might have misplaced a number of the matches I gained earlier this yr. However it’s simply that the character of these performances and the way poor they had been is disappointing as a result of I get shedding matches, you don’t win each week, and everybody loses at some stage. However it’s extra the character of how they had been and the way I performed and felt on the courtroom that’s not enjoyable. Murray on his latest run of poor kind

Different Opening Matches

Spherical of 32 Matches

Who do you assume appears to be like in the perfect form to win the title? Let me know within the feedback.