The Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters 1000 event is the first of three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments played on clay. As the first major clay court tournament of the year, the Monte-Carlo Masters 1000 is a big opportunity for players who don’t thrive on the power required for hard courts to show their skills in advance of the French Open later this spring.
The Monte-Carlo Masters is a 56-player draw with 16 seeds in which the top eight of which get byes straight into the second round. The top seed in the tournament is world number one Novak Djokovic; however, the seeds below him will be slightly different due to injuries.
Carlos Alcaraz, who was the world number-one before his semifinal loss to Jannik Sinner at the Miami Open, will miss the event due to arthritis in his left hand and muscular discomfort in the spine. Also missing the tournament will be Rafael Nadal (hip), Nick Kyrgios (knee), Pablo Carreno Busta (elbow), and Americans Sebastian Korda (wrist), Jenson Brooksby (illness), and Frances Tiafoe (rest).
Djokovic has not competed since he reached the semi-finals in Dubai in early March because he’s not allowed to play in the U.S. due to COVID restrictions. While Djokovic was eliminated in the first round here last year he won the tournament in 2013 and 2015 and is the clear favorite.
Schedule for Monte-Carlo Masters:
- Round 1 – April 10-11, 2023
- Round 2 – April 11-12, 2023
- Round 3 – April 12, 2023
- Quarterfinal – April 14, 2023
- Semifinal – April 15, 2023
- Final – April 16, 2023
How to Watch the Monte-Carlo Masters:
All matches can also be watched on the Tennis Channel or streamed on tennistream.com or on Bet365 streaming.
Best Bets for the Monte-Carlo Open:
Novak Djokovic to win the tournament
This isn’t a surprise bet. Djokovic is the best player in the world (or at least until Alcaraz can unseat him directly), and is playing in a tournament where his main challenger is out. While Djokovic hasn’t been playing in recent events in the U.S., he has spent his time training on clay for this section of the ATP Tour. He’s not as dominant a clay court player as he is on hard courts, but he’s 15-1 in 2023 and won the Australian Open while losing just one set. It’s hard to bet against a player in that kind of form.
Jannik Sinner to win the tournament
We had Sinner to win the Miami Open as one of our best bets and he came through. He’s now firmly entrenched inside the top 10 in the world and likely not going anywhere for a while. The 21-year-old has already been to the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slams, so he is not simply a hard-court player. Djokovic’s early losses at Monte-Carlo the last few years after being prevented from entering run-up tournaments suggest that he might be rusty this year as well. He would face Sinner in the quarter-finals, but if you believe the time off with hurt the Serbian, then betting on Sinner makes a great deal of sense.
Casper Ruud to win the tournament
Until this week, Ruud was just 4-5 this season, but he is known for being a far better clay court player than hard court player and he showed that when he won the title in Estoril this weekend. Ruud’s career winning percentage on clay is just above .730 while his mark on other surfaces is just over .550, so this track record of success on clay is real. He has a pretty easy run in his draw up until a quarter-final showdown with Andrey Rublev, but Ruud should be in prime form by then.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to win the tournament
We end with our dark horse here. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was the 2022 Monte Carlo runner-up and has the raw talent to play with anybody on the ATP Tour. He has a tough first-round match against Russian Karen Khachanov, but Khachanov is more of a hard-court player, so the Spaniard has a real chance to pull the small upset. That would then give him the runway for a deep run into the tournament until he faces Rublev and possibly Ruud later.
It’s a tough draw, and one that could end in the first round, so that’s why the odds are so long, but it could pay off big if you want to place a small bet on his success in Monte-Carlo to continue.
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