Fresh from the “Sunshine Double”, Jannik Sinner starts the clay season in the best possible way by reaching the round of 16 of the “Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters”, the third “1000” of the season, with a prize pool of 6,309,095 euros, which is being played on the red clay of the Monte-Carlo Country Club, in the Principality of Monaco. Second seed and bye in the first round, the 24-year-old from South Tyrol defeated the Frenchman Ugo Humbert on his debut 6-3 6-0 in an hour and 4 minutes of play. For a place in the quarterfinals Sinner will face the winner of the match between Francisco Cerundolo, number 16 seeded, and Tomas Machac.
“Good feelings, the goal is Roland Garros”
“I’m happy, it was a good performance from my point of view. It was the first match on clay, you have to change the style of play a bit, adapt to some circumstances: the first two matches, the first tournament are never easy, there isn’t much time to adapt but I’m happy to be able to play another match here. The sensations are good but there aren’t many expectations.” Jannik Sinner enjoys the victory over Humbert on his debut in Monte Carlo, the tournament with which he inaugurated his season on clay. “The most difficult thing – he focuses on the transition from the fast American – is the slide, understanding how long it has to be to find the right distance on the ball. But the best training sessions are the matches even if the off moments also count, which you have to exploit to complete your game. You try to find the right condition for Roland Garros, that’s the objective, but there’s time to adapt and I’m happy with how I made this transition.”
Ko Darderi
Luciano Darderi immediately leaves the scene at the “Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters”. On Court EA de Massy, the Italian-Argentine, number 21 in the ranking and 15th in the seeding, was defeated 7-6(4) 5-7 6-1 by the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, former top ten player and now number 74 at ATP, competing with his protected ranking. For the 29-year-old from Wroclav, a success that could represent a turning point in a season that has so far been forgotten: the Pole, who returned in January after being out due to a right knee injury, has won four of the five matches won this season (out of the 12 played so far) in the United Cup and the other in the first round of the Australian Open. For the rest he had lost in the first round in the last six tournaments played.