The start of the full-fledged clay court season saw a huge upset when Frenchman and seventh seed Jo-Wilfred Tsonga lost his opening match at the Monte Carlo Masters 7-6(7-3) 2-6 3-6 against a much lower ranked player and fellow countryman Adrian Mannarino. The first set which saw the players exchange a break each , went into the tiebreak, which Tsonga won 7-3.
However in the next two sets he did not seem to find his rhythm at all and was broken multiple times. This resulted in his exit from the tournament and a forgettable start to his clay court season. Lucas Pouille and Jeremy Chardy kept the French hopes alive and provided some consolation to the crowds by winning their respective matches.
In another second round match Novak Djokovic , playing his first clay court match of the season, had to dig deep into his armoury before he saw off the challenge posed by Giles Simon. A break up in the third and deciding set and the scoreboard reading 5-4, Simon looked all set to pull off the biggest upset of the day , but Novak being the player he is won three straight games and sealed the match 6-3 3-6 7-5 in about two and a half hours.
Mischa Zverev who had beaten Andy Murray in the Australian open pre-quarters before losing to Roger Federer in the quarter finals bit the dust losing out to Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic in straight sets. He as unable join his younger brother Alexander Zverev in the second round who beat the much experienced Andreas Seppi on Monday. In the last match of the day tenth seed David Goffin pulled off a straight set victory over Nicolas Almagro to ensure no more upsets took place.
Day 4 Preview: The King of Clay Rafael Nadal will be starting his quest for a record 10th title at Monte Carlo against British world No. 45 Kyle Edmund. If he wins the tournament, he will hold the record of being the first person in the Open Era to win a title 10 times. He has been in top form throughout the year after returning from an injury break, reaching the finals at Melbourne and Miami ,eventually losing out to his old rival Federer, (who himself is going through an exceptional comeback) on both occasions. However clay courts being his forte and Federer pulling out, Nadal starts his campaign as an outright favourite . The current world No. 1 Andy Murray, on the other hand, who is recovering from an elbow injury is raring to go with his first match coming up against Gilles Muller who beat Tommy Roberdo in straight sets today. Stan Wawrinka , Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov and Tomas Berdych are the other top ten seeds who will be seen in action on Wednesday.
