OK so quickly I thought I would do an update on the 3rd 1000 Masters series event of the season, and the first of the clay court swing, the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, which saw three of the top four guys compete (minus Roger) among the other best players in the world for the trophy. This event has been strongly dominated by Rafa over the last eight years so toppling the king of clay is not going to be an easy one here for anyone else. But let's have a look at some match results.
To start with there has been quite a few upsets with alot of the top seeds tumbling out already, starting with Janko Tipsarevic who went out against the fast rising Bulgarian, Grigor Dimitrov who took out the Serb in 7-6, 6-1. Tomas Berdych also went out in a surprise defeat to Fabio Fognini of Italy, who dismissed the big Czeck in just 6-4, 6-2, which was not to be expected, but Fognini is quite a clay court player, and these events will favour the specialists. And Juan Martin Del Potro also made an early exit against the Finn, Jarko Nieminen, who battled his way past the big Argentine in 6-4, 4-6, 7-6. Milos Raonic also went out to the Finn in the previous round as well, and the big serving Canadian just couldn't quite dig out the win, in another hard fought match, where Jarko beat Raonic in 6-3, 1-6, 7-6. Marin Cilic also exited the tournament but he did so at the hands of the French No.2, Richard Gasquet, who has been in impressive form so far this year, and he took out the big Croatian in 7-5, 6-4.
Now for the biggest upset of the week so far, which was Andy Murray who despite making an impressive start in his opening match against Eduardo Roger-Vasselin, he went on to face Stan Wawrinka in the 3rd round. And this match promised to be quite a tough test for Andy, and right enough it proved to be just that and more, and despite a fairly promising start with Andy gaining two break points on Stan's serve, that was about as far as he got as the Swiss went on to hold serve, and snap Andy's in two, with a double break to take the opening set. And despite a slightly better start in the 2nd set at 2-2, things went sharply downhill as Andy's tame serve got a beating from Stan and the unforced errors piled up, and before we knew it, Andy sustained one of the heaviest recent defeats in his career with a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing.
After such a fine start to the week, it seems almost puzzling how Andy could go from being good to... well frankly shit in just the space of a day. Andy's serve is well known to be his Achilles heel and it was certainly exploited today by Wawrinka, who just pummelled the British No.1 without mercy. But it does raise the question of just how Andy seems to curiously go through these moments where he sustains heavy defeats, yet for example Djokovic, can always find a way to battle through more times than not against most in form opponents even when he's not playing his best, which I will get to soon. Also as a result of this defeat Andy will drop back to the No.3 spot, as he needed to reach the quarter finals in Monte Carlo to maintain the No.2 ranking, and so unfortunately that has gone by the wayside for now, and Rog as of next week will be back at 2. But all that aside we have to remember that clay is Andy's least preferred surface, and by his own admission he has said that clay is his "worst" surface, something which was certainly proved today! So even though it was a tough loss, I'm sure Andy will bounce back (no pun intended) and it is just the start of the clay court season, so he will have plenty more chances to improve his game and adapt to the tricky red dirt before the French Open arrives.
Now onto the remaining top seeds, starting with Novak Djokovic, the World No.1, who came into Monte Carlo recovering from an ankle injury he sustained during his Davis cup tie against the USA. Regardless of that though Nole confirmed he was fit enough to play and so far he has made progress in Monte Carlo, but he's not had it easy. In his 2nd round match, Novak came up against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, and Nole started off slow, with the Russian taking the opening set. But from here Nole worked his way into the match and went on to seal it in 3 sets, winning in 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. And it was the same in his 3rd round match against Juan Monaco, as Novak had to fight from a set down once again to beat the Argentine, with an eventual 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win.
Despite his injury concerns, Novak so far has put them mostly to rest, but judging by his results so far, he has not been playing at his best, but being the No.1 player in the world, he knows how to dig in and fight on no matter what. And that for me is what sets him apart from the rest of the players on tour just now, including Andy Murray, who in moments like today against Stan Wawrinka, seemed to just uncharacteristically fall apart, and overall Djokovic has better consistency on all surfaces than Andy does, which I guess is what makes him the world's best player. So for that alone Nole deserves much credit for fighting on and finding a way to win in these situations, and next up he will face Jarko Nieminen, so we will see how that one goes.
So this brings me onto the 8 time defending champion, and the undisputed king of clay, Rafael Nadal, who so far has made a very impressive comeback to the tour after a 7 month absence due to his knee injury. And its safe to say so far in Monte Carlo he has continued his superb form, as in his 2nd round match he raced past Marino Matosevic in just 6-1, 6-2, and also comfortably swept past the German player, Philipp Kolschreiber in 6-2, 6-4 in the 3rd round to make it to his 9th quarter final in the principality. At this rate and given his current form I think it will be tough to imagine anyone defeat Rafa at this event, as his 8 time champion record speaks for itself, and having not dropped a set so far (and probably most likely not to!) he will be mighty tough to defeat. And for me the only man who could do it is Nole, but given the currrent circumstances with his ankle, it has to be said that I can quite see the World No.1 take down Rafa here, but we'll see how it goes, and who will come out on top should they meet in the final.
And that's it for now, will follow soon on Monte Carlo again.
Until the next one, bye the now!
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