Monte Carlo Masters: 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 right 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 formidable 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 right down to defeat Jaume Munar.

You may see the first-round ends in full and the second-round outcomes thus far under:

Spherical of 64 Monte Carlo 2023 Outcomes

Spherical of 32 Outcomes So Far

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 nicely 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 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 at the very least maintain his personal, then it would assist kick-start his yr, however I’d anticipate 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 all 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 deal with the grass the place he can utilise his strengths, whereas clay tends to focus on his weaknesses.

I put a number of work in, within the low season, skilled exhausting, and you understand, had continued that by means of the yr. There have been components of this yr which have been a little bit bit difficult team-wise, however, like, within the build-up to Doha, for instance, as I spent, you understand, an excellent form of 10 days alone on the courtroom and, you understand, had labored nicely 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 may lose matches and stuff. I may have misplaced among the matches I gained earlier this yr. Nevertheless it’s simply that the character of these performances and the way poor they have been is disappointing as a result of I get dropping matches, you don’t win each week, and everybody loses at some stage. Nevertheless it’s extra the character of how they have been and the way I performed and felt on the courtroom that isn’t enjoyable. Murray on his current run of poor kind

Different Opening Matches

Spherical of 32 Matches

Who do you suppose seems to be in the perfect form to win the title? Let me know within the feedback.