MONACO — Defending French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz began his clay-court season by rallying to a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory over Francisco Cerundolo within the second spherical of Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday.
The second-seeded Alcaraz was coming off a shocking loss to Belgian veteran David Goffin in his first match on the Miami Open final month.
One other upset appeared potential when Cerundolo, ranked No. 22, took the primary set however Alcaraz dominated the remainder of the match and transformed 5 of his seven break factors throughout the second and third units.
Alcaraz is looking for a second title of 2025 and to finetune his clay-court recreation forward of a bid to retain his title at Roland Garros beginning subsequent month.
Later Wednesday, Novak Djokovic will start his newest bid to win a one centesimal profession title when he faces Alejandro Tabilo, who handed the 24-time Grand Slam champion a shocking loss on the Italian Open final 12 months.
Djokovic, who not too long ago misplaced the Miami Open ultimate to Jakub Mensik, turns 38 subsequent month — shortly earlier than the French Open begins on Might 25.
Lorenzo Musetti, the thirteenth seed, beat Jiri Lehecka 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 to arrange a last-16 match towards fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini, who beat top-seeded Alexander Zverev on Tuesday.
Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils, a pair of 38-year-old Frenchman, have been eradicated by Daniel Altmaier and seventh-seeded Andrey Rublev, respectively.
The Monte Carlo Masters is the primary large clay-court match of the 12 months on the ATP Tour.
