Daily Tennis Tips – Monday April 7

Top-30 rivals Jiri Lehecka and Sebastian Korda square off for the second time in the first round of the Monte-Carlo Masters as the clay swing ramps up.  

Lehecka dominated Korda in their only previous encounter, winning 6-2 6-1 at the 2024 Adeliade International.  

But Lehecka has hit the skids since reaching the semis of the Qatar Open – where he beat Grigor Dimitrov and Carlos Alcaraz – losing in the first round in Dubai (to Ugo Humbert), Indian Wells (to Cameron Norrie) and Miami (to Gael Monfils).  

Korda also lost to Monfils first up at Indian Wells in his first match in a month, but he impressed in making the quarters in Miami – beating Stefanos Tsitsipas, getting revenge on Monfils and going down in a tight one to Novak Djokovic.  

Though Korda is the only one of the pair with an ATP title on clay to their credit (the 2021 Emilia-Romagna Open), Lehecka made the Madrid Masters semi-finals last year. But on recent form, Korda is a compelling underdog option here.  

Less than a fortnight after turning 40, Stan Wawrinka kicks off another Monte-Carlo Masters campaign against clay specialist Alejandro Tabilo.  

Curretnly ranked 161st, three-time slam winner Wawrinka won this event in 2014 – the year before his French Open triumph. But he has won only one tour-level match in 2025, against Timofey Skatov at last week’s Bucharest Open before going down to second seed Pedro Martinez in three sets. 

World No.32 Tabilo’s build-up to Roland Garros began in disappointing fashion, losing his first match at the Houston Open to Jenson Brooksby in a third-set tiebreak.  

He was eliminated in the third round of both Sunshine Double tournaments by top-10 opposition after struggling on the South American clay swing.  

Tabilo’s formline isn’t overly encouraging, but the 2024 Rome Masters semi-finalist should find a way past ageing great Wawrinka.  

Gael Monfils’ resurgent 2025 season moves on to the Monte-Carlo Masters, where he was a semi-finalist in 2015 and the runner-up in 2016. He takes on qualifier Fabian Marozsan in the first round.  

The head-to-head is one-all, Marozsan winning at the 2024 Auckland Open and Monfils prevailing at last month’s Miami Masters. Both went to three sets.  

World No.42 Monfils won this year’s Auckland Open, and made the last 16 at the Australian Open and in Miami at 38 years of age. He’s beaten four top-30 players already in 2025, including Taylor Fritz at the AO.  

World No.80 Marozsan, who was in the top 40 this time last year, breezed past Zizou Bergs and Mattia Bellucci in qualifying. He is 7-7 at tour level this season.  

The Hungarian has a strong record on clay at Challenger level, but his most notable result on the surface on the ATP Tour was reaching the fourth round of the Rome Masters in 2023.  

It’s required high-quality opposition to halt the rejuvenated Frenchman Monfils in recent months and he’ll get plenty of crowd support at the Monte Carlo Country Club.  

Matteo Berrettini is a $1.53 favourite to account for Argentine qualifier Mariano Navone in the first round of the Monte-Carlo Masters.  

Their only previous clash was also on clay, with Berrettini fight back to win 6-7 6-3 6-2 in the semi-finals at Marrakech last year. 

But the Italian’s clay swing in recent years have been interrupted by injury; he hasn’t played the Madrid and Rome Masters or the French Open since 2021.  

The world No.27 lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Round of 32 at Indian Wells, before outlasting Alex de Minaur at the Miami Masters then losing a marathon quarter-final against Taylor Fritz.  

After cracking the top 30 last June, Navone is ranked 64th. The 2024 Rio Open and Romanian Open runner-up showed some decent form on the recent South American clay swing, beating Holger Rune on the way to the Argentina Open quarters.  

He had a modest Sunshine Double foray, before getting past Laslo Djere first up in Bucharest last week then going down to Marton Fucsovics in three sets in a repeat of last year’s final.  

Navone won qualifying matches against Tseng Chun-hsin and Arthur Rinderknech in recent days, but big-serving Berrettini should have his measure.