Alexei Popyrin has battled his well past a qualifier to achieve the second spherical of the Monte Carlo Masters however fellow Australian Chris O’Connell, himself a qualifier, has been knocked out.
His exit reduces the Australian contingent to a few with Alex de Minaur and Jordan Thompson nonetheless to play.
Popyrin needed to work laborious, shedding the primary set to Corentin Moutet, earlier than dispatching the Frenchman 3-6 7-5 6-2 in two hours, 42 minutes. He will now face defending champion Andrey Rublev, who as one of many prime eight seeds had a primary spherical bye.
O’Connell beat Aleksandar Vukic in Sunday’s closing qualifying spherical, a match that went to a 3rd set tie-break, and 24 hours later was no match for Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, overwhelmed 6-3 6-4 in 97 minutes.
De Minaur opens play on the purple clay of Court Rainier III, the present court docket, on Tuesday (2210 AEST) in opposition to former grand slam champ Stan Wawrinka. Like Popyrin the Aussie No.1 has but to get attain the final 16 within the occasion in three earlier makes an attempt, successful two of 5 matches.
Later within the day Thompson faces native favorite Gael Monfils, who at 37 is having a revival, breaking again into the world’s prime 50. The winner meets No.4 seed Daniil Medvedev.
Elsewhere on Monday two-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas superior after Laslo Djere of Serbia retired with an harm in the course of the second set with the Twelfth-seeded Tsitsipas main 6-3 3-2.
Ninth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov had little bother beating native participant Valentin Vacherot of Monaco, focusing on his opponent’s weaker backhand in a 7-5 6-2 win. The 32-year-old Bulgarian, a finalist in Miami just lately, is chasing his second title of the 12 months.
Dimitrov subsequent performs both Matteo Berrettini — who on Sunday received the Grand Prix Hassan II in Morocco — or Miomir Kecmanovic.
Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime had six aces and did not concede a break level in beating Italian qualifier Luca Nardi 6-2 6-3, though issues would possibly get harder within the second spherical in opposition to third-seeded Carlos Alcaraz.
However, Auger-Aliassime holds a 3-2 profession report in opposition to the Wimbledon champion and two-time grand slam winner. Furthermore, Alcaraz has been practising with strapping to his proper forearm.
Other winners included Ugo Humbert, who beat Federico Coria 4-6 6-1 6-2, Karen Khachanov, who defeated Britain’s Cameron Norrie 7-5 7-6 (7-3) and Indian qualifier Sumit Nagal who rallied to beat Matteo Arnaldi 5-7 6-2 6-4.
With report 11-time Monte Carlo champion Rafael Nadal out with an harm, second-ranked Jannik Sinner is the participant to beat whereas No.1 seed Novak Djokovic is trying to win for the third time, however first since 2015.
With AP
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
