Navone puts first against Berrettini in the most glamorous ATP Tour tournament

Five Argentines finally dispute the Masters 1000 of Montecarloperhaps the most glamorous tournament of the circuit and the first of that category of the European brick dust tour that will culminate in Roland Garros. TO Francisco closing it, Sebastián Báez y Tomás Etcheverrywho entered directly, joined this Sunday Mariano Navone y Camilo Ugo Carabelliwho won in the last stage of the qualy And they will be presented for the first time in the contest that is played in the luxurious Country Club of the Principality.

Navone, 61 of the ranking, defeated 6-0, 6-7 (5-7) and 6-1 to French Arthur Rinderknech74 °, and Ugo Carabelli, 63 °, beat Serbio 7-5 and 6-4 Hamad Medjedovic72 °, on a day in which there was already action of the main box, which will present a complicated path for the Albicelestes and will have a Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz y Novak Djokovic as maximum tractions.

The two from the previous phase -in which it was Francisco Comesañadefeated by Laslo djere– And closing it will jump to the court on Monday.

El Porteño, 23rd world, will collide in the last shift of the central court (near Argentine noon) with Fabio Fognini99 ° of the classification and one of the guests of the organization. It will be the first duel between the two and the Italian, 37 and champion of the tournament in 2019, could be a complicated rival, even despite being far from its best level.

Francisco, finalist this year in Buenos Aires and semifinalist in Santiago de Chile and of great performance in the Masters 1000 de Indian Wells y Miami (Quarters in the two tournaments), will seek to extend its great present in the Monegasque brick dust. And he will have the chance to feed his ranking, since last year he reached just the second round. Although if he wins, he will cross in the next instance with Alcaraz, second preclassified.

Navone also debuts before a dangerous Italian rival, Matteo Berrettiniin a third shift match. On July 9, which does not win two games in line from Buenos Aires (reached the rooms and lost with JOAO FONSECA), will go for the rematch against the Roman, who stayed with the only match they played previously, in the semis of Marrakech last year.

The draw was not benevolent with Navone, which his manages to overcome Berrettini, will face Zverev, the top favorite.

Ugo Carabelli will also be presented in the third turn, in front of the French Alexander Muller41 of the ranking and finalist a few months ago in Janeiro River. Although they never played a main box at ATP level, they did in a future, in a challenger and in the qualy of Wimbledon of 2022 and Galo won on two of those three occasions.

The Buenos Aires is enjoying the best season of his career, with solid performances in Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile, in which he arrived in Semis, and in Miami, where he started in the previous phase and said goodbye in third round against Djokovic. And he will first play a main 1000 Masters Table on the slow court tour that serves as preparation for the French Grand Slam. If you celebrate your debut, you will wait in second round for Daniil Medvedevninth standard head, or Karen khachanov.

Báez, 36th of the world and in force Rio champion, will start with Czech Tomas Machac21, in a duel that will leave the winner against the Australian Alex de Miñaureighth preclassified, for the second round.

The Buenos Aires gave this Sunday the title of Bucharest before the Italian Flavio Cobollibut great sensations of the Romanian contest was taken, in which he extended his record as the top winner of dust parties since 2022 (79, more than Casper Ruud -71 °- and until Carlos Alcaraz -68 °-) and it remained as the third player as more finals on this surface since the beginning of 2020 (10, behind the 16 of the Norwegian and the 12 of the Murcian).

His goal will now be to take that great performance to Montecarlo, in which he lost in 2024 in the debut and added 10 points that are not even part of his ranking today.

Etcheverry, meanwhile, will seek an action that allows you to start reverting a complicated 2025 in terms of results. It seems that he has not yet accommodated in his new society with Horacio de la Peñahis coach since December 2024, and the only tournament in which he managed to win two consecutive games was in Santiago, Chile, in which he reached Third Round.

The Platense, 44th of the ranking, will put first in the Principality before the difficult French Corentin Moutet75 ° already who won in February in the debut in Rio. If he wins, he will meet later with the American Ben Shelton (11 ° preclassified) or the Spanish Alejandro davidovich fokina. And further projecting his painting, he would go in third round before Jack Draper (5th) and in Ruud quarters (4th).

Tomy It puts into play only 50 points in Monaco (second round in 2024), but the most important thing for him in this tournament will be to recover confidence and raise the level, especially since next week he will have to defend the 200 of the Semis of Barcelona so as not to lose too much ground in the world classification.

Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz y Novak Djokovic They promise to be the main protagonists in Montecarlo, a tournament that will face different objectives. For the first two, the appointment represents a good chance to cut the distance with Jannik Sinnerstill comfortable at the top of the ranking even though he does not play from Australia due to his suspension by Doping. For the Serbian, it will be another opportunity to reach that coveted 100 ° title and further enlarge his legend.

Sascha y Carlitosmaximum favorites, they did not know how to take advantage of Sinner’s inactivity in recent months to approach number one. And the Monaco contest is one of the last important ones (next to Madrid) who will play before the return of the Italian, which will be enabled to return to the courts on May 4, just in time for Rome.

The German, who from the final of Australia who lost with Sinner barely reached the quarterfinals in Buenos Aires and Rio, will defend in the Principality 100 points of the round of 16.

After debuting against Navone or Berrettini, it would be measured with Lorenzo Musetti In eighths, Stefanos tsitsipasDefender of the title, in quarters and Djokovic in Semis.

The Spanish won in February in Rotterdamcould not repeat the 2024 celebration in Indian Wells (fell in semis) and lost points also in Miami (where he defended rooms and said goodbye to the debut). And as he will play in Montecarlo for the first time since 2022 -this is the only non -mandatory 1000 masters and he chose to save it in the last two editions -he can greatly feed his ranking. Wait for closing it or Fognini in second round. And only in the semifinals would go before a powdered specialist rival like him, Casper Ruud.

Sinner, who will lose after the tournament the 400 points of the semis of the last edition, leads the ranking with 10,330 points, 2,685 more than Zverev (2nd) and 3,610 more than Alcaraz (3rd). Its number 1 does not danger for now, but its two escorts could shrink the gaps for a second semester in which the Italian will defend much more.

Djokovic, third preclassified and fifth in the world, will debut before the winner of the duel that the Swiss Swiss will play on Monday Stan Wawrinka, wild card and another of the veterans of the circuit, and the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.

The 37 -year -old Serbian has a clear objective: to win the title to reach his 100th crown and transform into the third player in history to reach the hundred celebrations at ATP level, after Jimmy Connors109, y Roger Federer103.

That milestone escaped last week in Miami, where he lost the final against the young Czech Jakub fascinates19 years and then 54 ° of the ranking. And now he will go for revenge in a contest in which he was semifinalist last year and winner of the title in 2013 and 2015.

This Sunday, Aile He had a special training with Alcaraz. They played a set, although they did not finish it: the Spanish was 5-4 above when they closed the session. Before leaving the court, the two shared a brief talk in which it could be seen that the Serbian pointed out the right eye, which had been inflamed just before the Miami final due to an infection. We will have to see if it continues to bother in the next few days.

In the first round matches that were played on Sunday, the French Richard Gasquet38 years and guest of the organization, beat 6-3, 4-6 and 6-4 to the Italian Matteo Arnaldi; The Australian Jordan Thompson6-4 and 6-3 to the Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard; and the place Valentin Vacherotagain wild card, for 6-1 Alemd Struffs.