Tennis Confirm Novak Djokovic As The First
Djokovic, beaten by Musetti at the last-16 stage in Monte Carlo last year, came back from a break of serve down in the first set to win 7-5 6-3.
The Serb, 36, is only the second player to reach 10 Monte Carlo quarter-finals in the Open era.
The world number one will play Australia’s Alex de Minaur next.
After winning five of the last six games to turn around the opening set, Djokovic twice lost serve after going a break up in the second.
But the two-time winner, competing in his first event since splitting with former coach Goran Ivanisevic, responded to those setbacks and was able to serve out the match to love.
He will hope to reach his first semi-final at the tournament since his last title victory nine years ago against De Minaur, who beat compatriot Alexei Popyrin 6-3 6-4.
“I don’t think I am still at my top level but it was a great test today against a great player, a very talented player,” Djokovic said.
Italy’s second seed Jannik Sinner beat German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4 6-2 to set up a quarter-final against Danish seventh seed Holger Rune or Bulgarian ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov.
But fourth seed Daniil Medvedev is out following a 6-3 7-5 loss to fellow Russian Karen Khachanov.
Khachanov will meet Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last eight after the Greek 12th seed overcame Germany’s Alexander Zverev 7-5 7-6 (7-3).
There are four superb quarterfinals scheduled at the ATP Monte Carlo Masters. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic seeks to continue his positive start to the tournament against Alex de Minaur, while Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner is looking for a 25th win of the season against Holger Rune. As always, we at LWOT give our predictions and analysis for all the matches. But which players do you think will reach the semifinals?
ATP Monte Carlo Quarterfinal Predictions
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Karen Khachanov
Head-to-head: Tsitsipas 7-1 Khachanov
Tsitsipas has dominated the previous meetings between these two, although only one of their previous matches was on clay. However, that makes this more ominous for Khachanov. Tsitsipas is more comfortable in Monte Carlo than any other tournament, meaning stemming the Greek’s previous supremacy will be difficult. Khachanov did play very well to beat Daniil Medvedev in the previous round but at his best, Tsitsipas is a much tougher proposition on clay. If the 2021 French Open runner-up plays like he did for most of his last match against Alexander Zverev, he will be very difficult to beat.
Humbert will take some confidence from his previous wins against the Norwegian, but Ruud triumphed in their only previous meeting on clay. The Frenchman is very dangerous at his best and will get strong crowd support in Monte Carlo. Nonetheless, overcoming Ruud for the first time on clay will be a big ask. The two-time French Open runner-up started the year very strongly on hard courts and is unsurprisingly looking very sharp on his favorite surface. He should be able to soak up Humbert’s powerful hitting and pick the right moments to get his opponent on the move to claim victory.
