We take a look at the selected round of 16 fixtures from the ATP Tour’s Monte Carlo Masters taking place at Monte Carlo Country Club, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France on the 18th of April 2019.
2019 ATP Tour | Masters 1000 Series | Monte Carlo Masters
Monte Carlo Country Club, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
Selected Round of 16 Matches – 18 April 2019
Alex Zverev (1/4) vs Fabio Fognini (3/1)
Alex Zverev’s quest to truly break the wall that separates the top three from the rest has had its ups and downs. Zverev has certainly racked up the rankings points in regular tour events, but his Grand Slam exertions have barely evolved at all. And his 2019 has barely got out of first gear. He lost in the 4th round of Melbourne with a pitiful straight sets submission to Raonic. After reaching the final in Mexico he only managed to win one match during the prestigious ‘Sunshine Double’. He then bombed out at the Grand Prix Hassan II. His easy victory over Felix Auger Aliassime did harken back to his brilliant clay-court campaign last season. He won in Madrid last season and also reached the final in Rome. He also managed to reach the semi-finals here last season. So perhaps Zverev will be hoping that a return to the European clay-court swing will reinvigorate his campaign.
31-year-old Fabio Fognini is a clay-court specialist who enjoyed an excellent 2018 campaign. He has reached 13 career finals on clay, claiming seven titles during that period. In Rome last year he pushed clay-court aficionado Rafael Nadal to three sets in a bruising quarter-final. He also lost in an epic five-setter to Marin Cilic at Roland Garros. He won titles in Brazil, Sweden and Los Cabos. But 2019 hasn’t proved anywhere near as prolific for the Italian. He lost four matches in a row post-Aussie Open. That was all the more disturbing because it encompassed the South American clay-court swing where he performed so well last year. But Zverev looks vulnerable to an early upset at present and Fognini may smell blood in the water.
Alex Zverev leads the head-to-head 2-0, beating Fognini twice in his breakthrough campaign in 2017. Both of those matches were straightforward, straight sets victories. But Fognini may be worth a shot here as an outsider given his clay-court pedigree and Zverev’s complete lack of form at present.
Borna Coric (9/20) vs Pierre Hughes-Herbert (33/20)
22-year-old Borna Coric has blown slightly hot and cold since becoming one of the leading contenders on tour. Coric has been one of the most explosive new talents on the tour for some time now and already reached that semi-final in Dubai this year: he would go on to lose to Roger Federer in that match. He followed that up with a deep quarter-final run at the Masters 1000 event in Miami. Remember it was at last year’s ‘Sunshine Double’ when he really came to the fore, with a semi-final at Indian Wells a real breakthrough. He also won the Halle title and reached the final in Shanghai. This year has been a slightly more up and down affair, though that run in Dubai does highlight his massive potential. But clay isn’t his most favourable surface and this could prove a tricky encounter.
Pierre Hughes-Herbert is almost like the Kristina Mladenovic of men’s tennis. He clearly thrives on the double’s tour but has found intermittent success in the singles format. It’s probably unfair to call his success intermittent, with two ATP Finals in recent times. He reached the final of the Shenzhen Open towards the end of last season and reached the final of the Open Sud de France earlier this season. Like Coric, Herbert was also eliminated in the opening round here last season. But his passage thus far this week has been serene. He beat clay-court veteran Fernando Verdasco and former finalist Kei Nishikori in straight sets. The 28-year-old will look to exploit the slower surface and physically wear down his Croatian opponent.
Coric leads the head-to-head 1-0, winning their only match on the clay courts of Madrid in 2017. But this could prove a tricky little match for the more fancied Coric, especially when you look at Herbert’s recent form.
