* Good day for France: #10 Monte Carlo seed Simon, #11 Tsonga, #14 Monfils, wildcard Pouille advance, although Mannarino loses to Granollers and might fall below #30
* Perfect day for seeds: #16 Robredo wins first round match; #9 Dimitrov leaves Verdasco still below #35
* Pouille’s win leaves Thiem still below Top Forty
* Loss to Troicki means no career high for Klizan
* Monaco beats Vesely to reach Top Forty; Vesely to remain below that mark
* Querrey pulls out, replaced by Struff (who loses to Tsonga); withdrawal means that Sock will remain American #2, with Querrey #3
* Djokovic cruises past Ramos-Vinolas, is first to reach third round
* Ferrer follows when Estrella Burgos retires; Estrella Burgos remains below Top Fifty
* Cilic ends Florian Mayer’s comeback; is now within ten points of Wawrinka in contest for #9
* Haider-Maurer ends Tomic’s Top 25 hopes; is now all but sure to hit Top Fifty
* Bolelli/Fognini still unseeded in doubles, but easily beat Cabal/Farrah; Murray/Peers lose to Monfils/Tsonga; already two teams have withdrawn
Novak Djokovic beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-4 for a winning start. Lucas Pouille, one of five French players to reach the second round, will line up against Rafael Nadal after beating Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-4 to set up the clash with Spain’s king of clay.
Djokovic is playing at home, with his flat just a short walk from the tournament venue. The winner of three titles already in 2015 – including the Indian Wells-Miami Masters 1000 trophy double – is confident as he begins the pre-French Open campaign.
“Considering the amount of months that I haven’t played on the clay courts, to play against somebody that is a clay court specialist, and win in two sets, I thought it was a very good performance,” said the world No. 1.
“I can just take positives from today. Maybe there were a few games where I did drop a little bit with intensity and concentration. But overall was a high quality performance and I’m happy for that.”
Two Spaniards advanced to the second round, with number 16 Tommy Robredo fighting past Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 and Marcel Granollers back from injury with a win over Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-0.
In the third round, fifth seed David Ferrer won as Victor Estrella Burgos quit injured trailing 6-2, 2-0.
Roger Federer, the second seed and three-time Monte Carlo finalist, will begin on Wednesday against Jeremy Chardy after the French player booked his spot by defeating Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 7-5, 6-2.
The seeded French trio of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon all made winning starts. No. 11 11 Tsonga beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-4 while Monfils, who has never been past the second round in Monaco in a decade of playing the event, defeated Russian Andrey Kuznetsov for the second time this season, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. No. 10 Simon put out Monaco’s Benjamin Balleret 6-4, 6-2.
“There were ups and downs, I was not monstrously confident,” said Monfils, injured last month in the US. “I had trouble finding the right timing and moving on the surface. I’ve never had much success here in Monte Carlo, I’m very pleased that I was able to get through this match.”
Ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov held off Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, saving 15 of 17 break points; Serb Viktor Troicki defeated Casablanca champion Martin Klizan 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-2. Spaniard Tommy Robredo, seeded 16th, beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings
As of April 14, 2015
Rank &
Prior…Player………..Points
1..(1) Djokovic……….12935
2..(2) Federer…………8305
3..(3) Murray………….6060
4..(4) Nishikori……….5280
5..(5) Nadal…………..5085
6..(6) Raonic………….4945
7..(8) Berdych…………4510
8..(7) Ferrer………….4460
9..(9) Wawrinka………..3415
10.(10) Cilic…………..3405
11.(11) Dimitrov………..3055
12.(12) Lopez…………..2380
13.(13) Simon…………..2210
14.(14) Tsonga………….2000
15.(15) Anderson………..1960
16.(16) Bautista Agut……1940
17.(17) Gulbis………….1910
18.(18) Monfils…………1750
19.(19) Isner…………..1720
20.(21) Goffin………….1705
21.(20) Robredo…………1675
22.(22) Karlovic………..1470
23.(23) Cuevas………….1442
24.(24) Mayer…………..1409
25.(25) Kohlschreiber……1395
26.(26) Tomic…………..1390
27.(27) Gasquet…………1330
28.(29) Klizan………….1272
29.(30) Mannarino……….1258
30.(28) Fognini…………1240
Casablanca — Week of April 6
Monte Carlo — Week of April 13
………………..3R
1 Djokovic……….(1)Djokovic
13 Gulbis………..Haider-Maurer
11 Tsonga
8 Cilic………….(8)Cilic
3 Nadal
15 Isner
11 Simon
5 Ferrer…………(5)Ferrer
6 Berdych
12 Bautista Agut
16 Robredo
4 Raonic
7 Wawrinka
9 Dimitrov
14 Monfils (WC)
2 Federer
STATUS OF SEEDS:
1 Djokovic
2 Federer
3 Nadal
4 Raonic
5 Ferrer
6 Berdych
7 Wawrinka
8 Cilic
9 Dimitrov
11 Simon
11 Tsonga
12 Bautista Agut
13 Gulbis………lost 1R (Haider-Maurer)
14 Monfils (WC)
15 Isner
16 Robredo
TUESDAY
MONTE CARLO
Singles – Second Round
[1] N. Djokovic (SRB) d [Q] A. Ramos-Vinolas (ESP) 61 64
[5] D. Ferrer (ESP) d V. Estrella Burgos (DOM) 62 20 ret. (shoulder)
[8] M. Cilic (CRO) d [PR] F. Mayer (GER) 63 36 63
A. Haider-Maurer (AUT) d B. Tomic (AUS) 67(4) 76(5) 64
Singles – First Round
[9] G. Dimitrov (BUL) d F. Verdasco (ESP) 64 46 64
[10] G. Simon (FRA) d [WC] B. Balleret (MON) 64 62
[11] J. Tsonga (FRA) d [LL] J. Struff (GER) 64 64
[14] [WC] G. Monfils (FRA) d [Q] A. Kuznetsov (RUS) 46 63 64
[16] T. Robredo (ESP) d A. Seppi (ITA) 63 16 64
[WC] L. Pouille (FRA) d D. Thiem (AUT) 64 64
V. Troicki (SRB) d M. Klizan (SVK) 76(5) 57 62
M. Granollers (ESP) d A. Mannarino (FRA) 63 60
J. Monaco (ARG) d J. Vesely (CZE) 64 62
J. Chardy (FRA) d [Q] D. Schwartzman (ARG) 75 62
Doubles – First Round
[Alt] R. Haase (NED) / R. Klaasen (RSA) d A. Mannarino (FRA) / L. Rosol (CZE) 61 62
[WC] B. Paire (FRA) / S. Wawrinka (SUI) d R. Bopanna (IND) / F. Mergea (ROU) 67(6) 64 10-7
G. Monfils (FRA) / J. Tsonga (FRA) d J. Murray (GBR) / J. Peers (AUS) 46 76(4) 10-6
S. Bolelli (ITA) / F. Fognini (ITA) d J. Cabal (COL) / R. Farah (COL) 63 64
CONTENT VIA Bob LARSON TENNIS NEWS SERVICE.
Topics: Atp, Clay tennis, Federer, Monte-Carlo Tennis, Novak Djokovic, Rafa, Tennis Results
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