Jack Draper opened his account at the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters in dramatic style on a day which saw the top seed crash out and the defending champion survive a strong challenge.
It’s not easy conditions here sometimes and we were obviously playing later [in the day] but I feel like I have been transitioning well to the clay Jack Draper
It was also a day which saw the first round successfully completed, but it was the three second round matches, featuring top ranked players played towards the end of the day, which grabbed fans’ attention.
And from a British aspect, Jack Draper dominated America’s Marcos Giron by posting one of the quickest results at this week’s event, flattening his opponent 6-1 6-1 in just 61 minutes.
Having received a bye as the fifth seed, Draper could have been expected to require some time to adjust to clay in match conditions and display a few nerves as he was playing at The Principality for a third time without having posted a win.
None of this was apparent as he immediately took control of the match, breaking Giron twice in the opening set and winning it in just under 30 minutes.
Giron was unable to cope with the power of the Briton’s serve and overall game, struggling to make any impact on Draper’s serve as well as his accuracy and pace of forehand.
The second set was over in the blink of an eye with Giron making a stream of errors as he valiantly looked for an answer but was unable to halt or even slow down Draper’s progress into the Round of 16, marking his first win on the Monte Carlo clay, achieving his third win over the American, ranked 45th in the world.
“It’s not easy conditions here sometimes and we were obviously playing later [in the day] but I feel like I have been transitioning well to the clay. I’ve been working hard to look for my forehand and do all the things to be effective on this surface as I have struggled a little bit in the last couple of years. Hopefully this year I can have a good run.”
As do all his fans.
Matteo Berrettini (R) embraces Alexander Zverev following his victory
(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
In contrast, the fans of Alexander Zverev, the world No.2 and top seed in Monaco, will be very disappointed at seeing their hero crash out of the event in his opening match.
The German lost to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini who was roared on to his 2-6 6-3 7-5 victory by a crowd of compatriots over the two hours and 26 minutes the protagonists battled on Court Rainier III.
For Berrettini, 28, the win was his best in recent years, making the third round for only the second time in his career and improving his record against the German to 3-4.
Having exchanged the opening two sets, the decider was tense as the pair vied for supremacy which fell first to the Italian who broke first but then failed to serve out the match at 5-4.
Shrugging that disappointment aside, he recovered his break in the next game, featuring a 48-shot rally to secure the break point, which was converted when Zverev failed to retrieve a shot in the backhand corner.
Given a second chance to serve out, he didn’t falter and raised his arms aloft at having achieved the biggest upset of the week.
“The game plan was the same but I changed my attitude and the way I was believing in my strokes,” Berrettini said following his triumph. “I wasn’t hitting my forehand and serve like I had in previous days and I had to adapt to the conditions. Sascha was playing unbelievable, so it was not easy. Then I told myself to be more aggressive and if I am going to lose this match, I am going to do the right things and luckily it worked.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas gets the defense of his title underway
(Photo by Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)
Stefanos Tsitsipas, the defending champion seeded 6, was fortunate not to suffer a similar fate as Australia’s Jordan Thompson proved to be a tough hurdle to clear in his opening match as he attempts to win the title for a fourth time.
The Aussie, ranked 38, dominated the first set, dropping just four points on serve, forcing the Greek star to change tactics and adopt a more aggressive position to return serve, which proved successful as he turned the match around to win 4-6 6-4 6-2 after two hours of play.
“I really didn’t know what to expect; you don’t know what your opponent is capable of,” Tsitsipas said following his win. “He showed a good first set, he seemed to be playing quite reserved and wasn’t giving me much to work with. I was just trying to find something to reignite that consistency within my game.”
He added: “I tried to work around my serve; I felt like these were the moments that were tricky at the start of the match. Once that felt more consistent, I tried to focus on my return. Trying to return from far back didn’t seem to work much. I have had success returning far back on clay courts, but today it didn’t do the job, so I had to rely on closer returns, and it seemed to work well.”
Grigor Dimitrov got the schedule underway
(Photo by Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, back in the first round, the remaining matches were completed under brilliant sunshine.
The day’s play was opened with Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, seeded 15, requiring seven match points before claiming his second round place.
He beat Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 6-3 6-4, and no doubt breathed a sigh of relief when he finally converted a match point.
“I guess you build into it,” Dimitrov said. “[He’s] a very tricky opponent. You just need to pick it up; that’s just how it is. You don’t have much time after Miami, so I have been fighting to do that. Whether I win or lose, it doesn’t really matter; it’s just about doing the right thing.”
Denmark’s Holger Rune, seeded 10, wasn’t so fortunate as he was forced to retire after 42 minutes into his match with Nuno Borges when trailing 6-2 3-0.
The Dane called for the doctor after dropping the first set, and then threw in the towel after falling 0-3 behind.
Borges, who is making his main-draw debut in Monte Carlo, admitted: “I clearly saw that he wasn’t feeling great. I stayed really focused on my game and tried not to give him too much. I thought I did a good job with that.”
In other early Day 3 action, Australian Alexei Popyrin overcame Frenchman Ugo Humbert 3-6 7-6(2) 6-4, while Spaniard Pedro Martinez defeated Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 6-4 1-6 6-2, and his compatriot Flavio Cobolli backed up last weekend’s Bucharest title by moving past Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 6-4 6-2.
Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry cleared Corentin Moutet of France 4-6 6-1 6-4, while Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut downed Brandon Nakashima of the US, 6-2 6-4, and Czech Tomas Machac defeated Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 3-6 6-3 6-2.
