Monte Carlo first act, the draw. On Monday the Country Club Masters 1000 draw kicks off and inaugurates the great season on clay and two suggestions above all came out of the urn: the possible quarter-final between world number 1 Novak Djokovic and Capitan Futuro Carlos Alcaraz, and the hard path happened to Jannik Sinner, whom the absence of Matteo Berrettini promotes to best of the four Italians in the race.
Jannik (12 Atp) who with Berrettini at rest can try to overtake him in the standings, debuts against Borna Coric, the former great Croatian hope sunk to n.199 who is trying to get back on top. There is no precedent between the two, both former students of Riccardo Piatti. The bad news – for Jan, but also for his opponents – comes above all from the eighth theorist, who would oppose him to Andrei Rublev (8), finalist of the 2021 edition, and from the fourth, always hypothetical, against Sascha Zverev, number 3 of the world and second seed of the tournament.
The other blues, all grouped with Sinner in the lower part as a mini scrum package, are Lorenzo Sonego (21), who caught the Belarusian Ilya Ivashkha (42), Lorenzo Musetti (82) who finds the madness of Benoit Paire (49). ) and Fabio Fognini (32) – champion in the Principality in 2019 – who will face the French Rinderknech (58), with the prospect of challenging defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas to the second.
For Djokovic, who enjoys a bye in the first round, in the second there will be either Davidovich-Fokina or Marcos Giron, Alcaraz (11) instead after the free pass there is Botic Van de Zandschulp lurking. In addition to Berrettini, Nadal will also be missing, injured, and Dominic Thiem, positive for Covid after his return. Instead, we will see former world n.3 Stan Wawrinka, winner at the Country Club in 2014 in the final on his friend Federer, who today slipped to n.236 after long orthopedic-surgical trials and who at 37 tries to carve out some twilight satisfaction. Wild card for the qualifications finally for our Flavio Cobolli, who will try to become the fifth blue in the draw.
THE COMPLETE BOARD
Novak Djokovic (1) bye
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs Marcos Girón
David Goffin vs Qualified
Daniel Evans vs Roberto Bautista Agut (14)
Taylor Fritz (10) vs Lucas Catarina
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Marin Cilic
Sebastian Korda vs Botic Van de Zandschulp
Carlos Alcaraz (8) bye
Casper Ruud (4) bye
Qualified vs Aslan Karatsev
Dusan Lajovic vs Filip Krajinovic
Grigor Dimitrov vs Nikoloz Basilashvili (15)
Hubert Hurkacz (11) vs Gael Monfils
Pedro Martinez vs Ugo Humbert
Albert Ramos-Vinolas vs Tallon Griekspoor
Cameron Norrie (7) bye
Felix Auger-Aliassime (6) bye
Lorenzo Musetti vs Benoit Pair
Marton Fucsovics vs Lloyd Harris
Karen Khachanov vs Diego Schwartzman (12)
Lorenzo Sonego (16) vs Ilya Ivashka
Qualified vs Laslo Djere
Fabio Fognini vs Arthur Rinderknech
Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) bye
Andrey Rublev (5) bye
Alex de Minaur vs. Qualified
Qualified vs Christian Garin
Borna Coric vs Jannik Sinner (9)
Pablo Carreno Busta (13) vs Qualified
Stan Wawrinka vs Alexander Bublik
Qualified vs Federico Delbonis
Alexander Zverev (2) bye