ADVERTISEMENT

Hometennis

Tennis: Monte-Carlo Masters Quarterfinals Preview

Profile Picture: D.S. Williamson

D.S. Williamson

April 18th, 2019

The ATP Monte-Carlo Masters has reached the quarterfinals stage, with the top two men’s tennis players on the planet still alive. Both Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are in action Friday.

Dusan Lajovic vs. Lorenzo Sonego

In his last match Lajovic upset No. 4 Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-3. The 28-year-old Serbian has played very well during the Monte-Carlo Masters, where he’s handled Malik Jaziri 6-4, 6-4 and David Goffin 6-3, 6-4.

Sonego will try to be the first to push Lajovic to a third set. While Lajovic has cruised, Sonego's shown grit. He needed tiebreakers to defeat Andreas Seppi and Karen Khachanov in sets. In his last match he defeated Cameron Norrie 6-2, 7-5.

If Sonego plays controlled, he should challenge Lajovic.

(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (10) Daniil Medvedev

These two faced each other in the Australian Open. Although Djokovic beat Medvedev, Daniil made to world’s No. 1 player work. Djokovic lost the second set 6-7 (5) before going on to dominate his rival.

Medvedev could make it tough on Djokovic again. That means it's worth turning the television set on and watching the best tennis player in the world take on a tough up-and-coming challenger.

Guido Pella vs. (2) Rafael Nadal

Guido Pella has needed three sets to advance in all of his matches at the Monte-Carlo Masters. He defeated Marin Cilic in the second round and then took down Marco Cecchinato in the third. For his efforts Pella gets to battle the King of Clay in the quarterfinals.

Nadal had no trouble with either Roberto Bautista Agut or Grigor Dimitrov. He dropped four games in the first set to Dimitrov in the third round, but he bounced back with a 6-1 second set win. Nobody expects Pella to upset Nadal, but this match is definitely worth watching, even if it’s just to view the greatest clay tennis player in history.  

(9) Borna Coric vs. (13) Fabio Fognini

Coric needed three sets to advance past both Hubert Hurkacz and Jaume Munar in the first and second round before easily defeating Pierre-Hugues Hubert 6-4, 6-2 in the third.

Fabio Fognini had to fight to get past Andrey Rublev in the opening round. He walked over Gilles Simon, who resigned in his second-round match. In his third round match, he beat No. 3 Alexander Zverev in two sets.

ADVERTISEMENT

Loading...