ATP Masters in Monte Carlo, 3rd round, Tuesday, 12.04.2022
The French Open in front of your eyes, the Monte Carlo Masters under your feet! The best tennis players in the world are once again gathering on French soil to play out the prestigious tournament.
Once again, the world number 1 will be there to get in shape for Roland Garros. Already in the 1st round he did not get an easy opponent. Can I see in my Djokovic Fokina tip why everyone is still clearly in favour of the Djoker?
How good is a number 1 who has hardly played any tennis this year? If we want to analyse the performance of a Novak Djokovic, there is of course no getting around the Corona debate.
Several tournaments do not allow the Serb to participate without a vaccination, so the 34-year-old has no choice but to keep fit privately. The only exception: the Dubai competition a few weeks ago.
Djokovic was still able to beat Lorenzo Musetti and Karen Khachanov, but against Jiri Vesely there was the surprising end in two sets. After this defeat, he even lost the top spot in the world rankings for a short time.
Without doing anything about it, he got it back a little later and prepared himself secretly for the Masters in Monte Carlo. He has already experienced a lot there, both positive and negative. A year ago, the tournament was over very quickly.
In the round of the best 16, clearly lost to Daniel Evans. It’s been seven years since he last won here, 2013 was the first title. An elimination directly after the first match? On the one hand, that happened in 2006 against Roger Federer.
On the other hand, Djokovic suffered this mishap at the Masters six years ago. His opponent: Jiri Vesely, the very man who inflicted the defeat in Dubai on him this year!
After having had the pleasure of playing Alejandro Davidovich Fokina twice in 2021, he now faces encounter number three. 6-2, 6-1 as well as 6-3, 6-1, so far Djokovic has never let anything slip.
Unlike Djokovic, the world number 46 was not allowed to start with a walk-through. He improved in his 7-5, 6-3 win over Marcos Giron as the match progressed, but it might not be enough against the world No. 1.
Five of 13 break chances used, this value is also improvable. This is only Fokina’s second appearance at the Monte Carlo Masters, and he will probably have fond memories of 2021.
He managed to beat Alex de Minaur, Matteo Berrettini and Lucas Pouille, but when he lost the first set to Stefanos Tsitsipas 5-7 in the quarter-finals, he had to retire injured.
The 22-year-old comes to Monte Carlo with the burden of having been in anything but the best of form recently. In Indian Wells he at least got over the first hurdle, but his 1-6, 1-6 in Miami against Sebastian Korda was alarming.
On good days, the Spaniard can hurt anyone, but on bad days he can go down completely. What most people probably still remember: his completely crazy 6-7, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7 at the Australian Open against Felix Auger-Aliassime!
My Djokovic Fokina Tip
The fact that Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is not in top form should definitely play into Novak Djokovic’s cards. Because there is really no way to find out what the Serb is like. Playing tennis, that has not yet become a vocation in 2022.
Therefore, I can’t imagine him sweeping over Fokina in minutes.
My tip thus: There are more than 18.5 Games!
