Carlos Alcaraz began his bid to defend the Monte Carlo crown with a straight-set win over Sebastian Baez, signaling the start of a busy clay season he described as “Two long months ahead, but exciting ones.” Last year he compiled a 22-1 run on European clay that began with his maiden triumph at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. This week he opened his title defense with a 6-1, 6-3 victory against Baez.

The 22-year-old, a six-time major champion, made clear how much clay means to him in conversation with Prakash Amritraj on a non-match day Wednesday. “I enjoy so much playing on clay. I miss it so much. For me, that’s the most important thing,” he said.

Alcaraz also addressed his standing at the top of the rankings. He is tied with Jannik Sinner at 66 weeks as world No. 1, but he accepts that the position may not remain his for long after Sinner closed the gap with a Sunshine Double sweep and could challenge to reclaim the spot as early as next Monday. “The No. 1 spot is not in my mind,” he asserted. “As I said yesterday, sooner or later, I’m gonna lose it because Jannik has some tournaments he doesn’t defend (points) at all and I have a lot to defend. So I will try to just focus on my tennis, to be good on the court.”

Off the court, Alcaraz has indulged his interest in the sea. Images from the Miami Open showed him aboard a Sunreef Catamaran, and he has ordered his own custom Ultima 88 from the same builder. “Mine, they’re gonna build it. It’s going to take one year, one year and a half. So I’m super excited about it,” he said, adding that the water helps him unwind: “During the sea, everything is chill. My thing to disconnect from everything.”

When Tommy Paul expressed interest in joining, Alcaraz laughed about the invitation and the terms. “I saw Tommy Paul saying like…” Amritraj replied, “He wants to get on there,” and Alcaraz finished the thought: “I better invite him. I will for sure,” and “But I’ll tell him you’re gonna take me out for fishing. Half and half, I’m gonna make a deal with him.”

Matteo Berrettini produced a stunning performance in a second-round match at the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters, dismissing Daniil Medvedev 6-0, 6-0 in just 49 minutes. The result was Berrettini’s first victory over the world No. 10 and marked a dramatic reversal of their previous head-to-head history.

Before Wednesday, Medvedev had won all three of their earlier meetings. Those matches were played on hard courts, and clay produced a very different outcome. Berrettini dominated from the start, offering no margin for error and delivering a complete match that left Medvedev unable to win a game.

The scoreline places Berrettini in a very exclusive company. He became only the third man this century to hand a Top 10 opponent a double bagel and the fifth man in ATP rankings history, dating back to 1973, to achieve that feat. The rarity of a 6-0, 6-0 result against a current Top 10 player underlines how exceptional the performance was.

Beyond the headline score, the match will be remembered for its brevity and the way surface and circumstance shifted the balance between two players who had previously met only on a different surface. For Berrettini, the victory is notable both for the manner of the win and for ending a personal losing streak against Medvedev. For Medvedev, it stands as an abrupt and emphatic reversal in a rivalry that had previously gone in his favor on hard courts.

The result will reverberate through the draw at the Monte Carlo event, where Berrettini advances with a rare and emphatic statement. Statistical and historical context will follow, but the immediate fact is simple: Berrettini routed Medvedev 6-0, 6-0 in 49 minutes, a double bagel against a Top 10 opponent.

Grigor Dimitrov’s long run inside the ATP Top 100 is set to conclude after a first-round loss at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. Dimitrov, who reentered the Top 100 on April 2, 2012 after his first Top 10 victory over Tomas Berdych at the Miami Open, remained in the elite ranking band for the next 14 years and rose as high as No. 3.

On Tuesday he fell 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to Tomas Martin Etcheverry and dropped to 2-7 on the season. The impending exit from the Top 100 is partly attributed to the time Dimitrov missed in 2025 following a pectoral muscle injury sustained with a two-set lead on Jannik Sinner in the fourth round of Wimbledon. Dimitrov played just one match at the Paris Rolex Masters after that injury and entered Monte Carlo defending quarterfinal points.

Jannik Sinner and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz both advanced comfortably in their openers. Sinner, the world No. 2, extended his unbeaten set streak in ATP Masters 1000 competition to 36 while following a Sunshine Double sweep at Indian Wells and Miami. He defeated Ugo Humbert 6-3, 6-0.

“I’m just very happy to be back in Europe, especially here at home sleeping in my own bed. You’re seeing tennis in a different view, you’re slightly more relaxed coming here knowing the place really well,” he told Prakash Amritraj. “It was a really solid performance today against a very tough player, lefty.”

Sinner is pursuing his first clay-court title since July 2022, when he beat Alcaraz in Umag. He was runner-up to Alcaraz in both last year’s Rome and Roland Garros finals.

Alcaraz, the 22-year-old defending champion, began his title defense with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Sebastian Baez, breaking five times from 10 opportunities. Both men will carry momentum as the tournament progresses while Dimitrov faces the end of an era in the ATP rankings.