All third round singles matches will be played on a busy day in Monte Carlo
Thursday’s action is headlined by the 14th meeting between Daniil Medvedev and Sascha Zverev. The day also features two matchups between top 10 seeds, as Jannik Sinner faces Hubert Hurkacz, and Andrey Rublev takes on Karen Khachanov. Plus the top two seeds, Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who are also a pair of two-time Monte Carlo champions, will also contest their third round matches.
Each day, this preview will analyze the most intriguing matchup, while highlighting other notable matches on the schedule. Thursday’s play gets underway at 11:00am local time.
Daniil Medvedev (3) vs. Sascha Zverev (13) – Last on Court Rainier III
Medvedev picked up his tour-leading 30th win of the season on Wednesday despite complaints regarding the bad bounces provided by the clay surface. Whining about court surfaces is nothing new for Daniil, who was extremely vocal regarding his disgust for how slow the hard courts at Indian Wells were playing last month, especially during his match against Zverev. However, Medvedev still managed to win that match, even after injuring his ankle, and went on to reach the Indian Wells final.
Zverev is now 10-9 this season, after missing the second half of 2022 due to the awful ankle injury he suffered at Roland Garros. But he’s now won seven of his last 10 matches, and comfortably eliminated Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets on Wednesday.
Medvedev now narrowly leads this rivalry 7-6, after the aforementioned tight three-set victory last month at Indian Wells. However, all 13 of those previous meetings occurred on hard courts. In their first match on clay, a surface Daniil has an admitted aversion to, Sascha should be favored to even this rivalry at 7-7. While Medvedev is a formidable threat on any surface, and Zverev is yet to regain his top form, the German is a much more accomplished clay court player.
Other Notable Matches on Thursday:
Hubert Hurkacz (10) vs. Jannik Sinner (7) – Hurkacz has survived two long three-setters to reach this stage. Sinner has only played one singles match this week, which was not completed, as Diego Schwartzman retired during the second set. Hubi leads their head-to-head 2-1, but they’ve never played on clay.
Nicolas Jarry vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas (2) – Tsitsipas has only played five games this week, as he also received a retirement in the last round. Jarry is an impressive 11-2 on clay this season, after reaching the semis in Rio and winning the title in Santiago.
Andrey Rublev (5) vs. Karen Khachanov (9) – Rublev was the runner-up here two years ago, while in the last round, Khachanov defeated last year’s runner-up, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Karen is 2-1 against Andrey at tour level, though they’ve also never met on clay.
Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Lorenzo Musetti (16) – Djokovic is now 16-1 on the year after dispatching of qualifier Ivan Gakhov on Tuesday. Musetti defeated another qualifier, fellow Italian Luca Nardi, by a score of 6-0, 6-0 on Wednesday. Djokovic has claimed all three previous encounters with Musetti, including a Roland Garros match two years ago in which the Italian took the first two sets.
Matteo Berrettini vs. Holger Rune (6) – Rune ousted Dominic Thiem in straight sets on Wednesday evening, while a bit later Berrettini outlasted Francisco Cerundolo in a three-set roller coaster. They have split two previous meetings on hard courts, though when they last played several weeks ago in Acapulco, Matteo retired due to injury after losing all seven games contested. Berrettini also appeared to be dealing with a back injury on Wednesday.
Thursday’s full Order of Play is here.
