BET ALCARAZ

“I also want to say before we go quarter by quarter, this is a pretty significantly weakened field based on just withdrawal. So I'm going to go down the list right now. It's Djokovic, Fritz, Draper, Davidovic, Vakina, Feess, Munnar, Korda. And then a few Americans didn't sign up, Shelton, Tommy Paul, a couple of others. So there are plenty of players who you would normally expect to see in a Masters 1000 tournament that we will not be seeing.”

“Only one time in tennis history has a player won the Sunshine Double, and then also won Monte Carlo. And that was Djokovic in 2015. It doesn't really happen. I'm never really going to back a player to win the Sunshine Double and do well at Monte Carlo. History tells us it's just not going to happen. Now Jannik can do it. He does a lot of things that are historical and mind-blowing, but it's not something that I'm going to bank on.”

“Let's talk Monte Carlo. It is of the clay tournaments. It generally reads as the slowest. It's windy and it is slow. The ball is going to lose a ton of energy on the court surface. And the real sort of natural clay quarters, especially because there is less time for the less natural players to even make that adjustment and to get comfortable again on the dirt, the real natural clay quarters are usually going to do pretty well at this tournament.”

“Only one time in tennis history has a player won the Sunshine Double, and then also won Monte Carlo. And that was Djokovic in 2015. In fact, only one time has a player won Miami, and then won Monte Carlo. That was Djokovic in 2015, of course. So, it doesn't really happen. The Sunshine Double, those are two events that are appropriately grouped together. They're back to back.”

“Zverev finally started serving Medvedev heavily wide in Paris. Sasha's wide serve, it's improved since then. He's worked on hitting a slower, more angular slice serve. And that very improvement that I've seen from Zverev this year is going to really play into this Medvedev head-to-head really nicely. Not to mention Clay. Look, I mean, Zverev's weight of shot, if he's actually hitting through the ball with confidence... these things in theory should help Zverev.”

“I cannot believe this, but it's three straight tournaments he has been my dark horse. Indian Wells, Miami, now I'm looking at this again... to me, he's just easily the most dangerous unseated player in that particular section. More so than Griegsbord, who's struggling. More so than Monfils, who hasn't been able to really stack together wins in some time.”

“Let's talk Monte Carlo. It is of the clay tournaments. It generally reads as the slowest. It's windy and it is slow. The ball is going to lose a ton of energy on the court surface. And the real sort of natural clay quarters, especially because there is less time for the less natural players to even make that adjustment and to get comfortable again on the dirt, the real natural clay quarters are usually going to do pretty well at this tournament.”

“But ultimately, I do think Alcaraz will get back on track here and win Monte Carlo back to back. He has been so, so good on clay. The extra effectiveness on the forehand for Carlos, the options that he has creatively to sort of use his drop shot in these conditions after pushing players back with the heavy spin and of course, the defense and the returning, which is just impenetrable in slow clay court conditions.”

“Zverev finally started serving Medvedev heavily wide in Paris, and Zverev likes, he favors the tea serves. He likes to go tea. And against Medvedev, that's his, those are his better returns. Moving into the middle of the court, from that deep return position, you don't really get anywhere serving tea against Medvedev. You've got to go wide. You're not really going to ace him. You're not going to get a lot of service winners.”

“This is a pretty significantly weakened field based on just withdrawal. So I'm going to go down the list right now. It's Djokovic, Fritz, Draper, Davidovic, Vakina, Feess, Munnar, Korda. And then a few Americans didn't sign up, Shelton, Tommy Paul, a couple of others. So there are plenty of players who you would normally expect to see in a Masters 1000 tournament that we will not be seeing.”

“Midway through Indian Wells, the app stopped working and I have not heard from them. So this is where my information on what's going on is very limited. I don't know what happened, but I think it's safe to assume bulky is not going to be a thing. I hope everyone's okay over there. More likely than not, they probably just hatched the project and they haven't been communicative with me.”

“The way I could justify it is, he was healthy enough to play Indian Wells. And that makes me think, unless there was a setback, a physical setback that I'm unaware of, that makes me think that he's had ample time to prepare and build up his fitness for Monte Carlo week. That he's actually been healthy for a couple of weeks now, which means he's been able to push it hard in the fitness and the training, and that he might be ready to go here.”

“I personally love it. My dark horse here is Alejandro Tabilo. My upset alert is Francis Tiafoe. My early popcorn is Alcaraz against the winner of Baez and Vavrenka. I promise I'm not being paid by Alejandro Tabilo. I'm not in his payroll. You have my word on that. But I cannot believe this, but it's three straight tournaments. He has been my dark horse.”

“Ultimately, I do think Alcaraz will get back on track here and win Monte Carlo back to back. He has been so, so good on clay. The extra effectiveness on the forehand for Carlos, the options that he has creatively to sort of use his drop shot in these conditions... I think what we see players do against Carlos where sometimes they can just sort of suffocate him and kind of go all out offensive blitz. It's not going to be a thing in these conditions.”

“Well, the ATP, they have made a move here. So for now, let's just do that. I have signed up, I have made a league. It's called Monday Match Analysis, the code to join the league. It's through the ATP website. So it's very official. It's not going to shut down and go belly up on us. The code will be in the description to join the Monday Match Analysis Fantasy League.”

“Number four seed is Lorenzo Musetti. He is back. Hopefully healthy. He's the defending runner up, so there's a lot of ranking point implications on Musetti's run here. He's been so good at this event. Monte Carlo has been his best tournament throughout his career, and I do think the draw is really favorable for him, so I don't see him really getting picked off early.”