Rafael Nadal is the obvious favourite going into the 2019 Monte-Carlo Masters but the big question is whether someone might challenge him here and through rest of the clay season. Monte-Carlo Masters outright betting odds & tips can be found below.
As the first week of the clay season draws to a close with the ATP 250 tournaments at Marrakech and Houston wrapping up, the action moves to Monte Carlo for the first Masters 1000 of the year on clay. The Monte Carlo Masters has often been the trend-setter for what the rest of the clay season has in store.
The clay season for many is being billed as the battle between the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal and the world number one Novak Djokovic. While this may well be the case eventually, there remain may a worthy contender to both this time around.
Nadal, who is unsurprisingly rather short odds at 1/1 (with bet365 here) is looking for an unprecedented 12th title at Monte Carlo where as Djokovic (10/3 with Betfair) is looking for his third title and an opportunity to ascertain early supremacy on the red dirt.
Both Nadal and Djokovic bring with them some question marks; Nadal over his fitness with the withdrawal from the Indian Wells semi-finals and skipping the Miami Open, where as Djokovic surprisingly hit some indifferent form at the Sunshine Masters with early losses at both Indian Wells and Miami.
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Intuitively, the biggest threat to both Nadal and Djokovic at Monte Carlo and overall on clay remains Dominic Thiem. The Austrian has beaten both Djokovic and Nadal on clay during the last two seasons.
With his first ever Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells, beating Roger Federer in the final, Thiem will bring a lot of confidence with him to the clay season. What is often lacking with Theim is consistency and it remains to be seen how that shapes up this summer. Thiem starts off at 7/1 with betway to continue the run that has seen him emerge as this third-favourite contender on clay this season.
Having won Masters 1000s on clay in both 2017 and 2018, Alexander Zverev would be a strong competitor to the top two players in the world. However 2019 has been a disappointing year for Zverev with several disappointing early losses, most recently this week of the clay at Marrakech. As a result, Zverev is not bringing a whole lot of confidence with him to the clay swing.
So much so that despite being ranked third in the world, Zverev starts off as 16/1 with Unibet to win this tournament.
In addition, there is close to half a dozen or more individuals that can be regarded as being capable of making a deep run at Monte Carlo. There are the ‘Next Gen’ comprising of the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas (25/1 with 888Sport), Borna Coric (66/1 with bet365 here ), Daniil Medvedev (100/1 with Unibet ) and Denis Shapovalov to name a few, and then there are the more seasoned clay court veterans of the likes of previous year’s finalist Kei Nishikori (33/1 with Unibet ), Stanislas Wawrinka, Roberto Bautista Agut among others.
Unless proven otherwise, one would still predict that the first clay court Masters of the year will be a battle between Nadal and Djokovic.
A Nadal win would set the tone that despite all of Djokovic’s successes in the last nine months, the Spaniard still holds the aces on the red dirt. On the other hand, a Djokovic victory here could possibly lead to further dominance by him on the clay and make a case for whether we truly are seeing the greatest player of all time, in his bid to catch up to Roger Federer’s grand slam count as well as holding all four majors at the same time for the second time in his career.
In the absence of unforeseen circumstances, fitness related or other such, Nadal still remains the strong favorite at Monte Carlo. He has won this title 11 times and knows the lay of the ‘dirt’ (land) better than any. The Spaniard is well aware of the importance of early supremacy on the clay with a long season ahead and will give it his all. Despite some cloud of uncertainty around his fitness around the Sunshine Masters, Nadal has atypically listened to his body and taken the needful rest and breaks.
Reports suggest that he has returned to being close to full fitness in practice in recent times. In addition, Djokovic has not looked the same player since his commanding Australian Open win in January. While both their draws at Monte Carlo are challenging, Djokovic probably has the somewhat more difficult one. In the event that Djokovic were to lose early at the tournament, it is difficult to see anyone else take out the 11 time winner.
An intriguing week of tennis lies ahead with a lot of parity and uncertainty in the making. The Spaniard world number two has been there before, and has come out with flying colors. A run for a 12th Monte Carlo title will not be among the easier ones for Nadal, but he still knows what it takes on this surface better than any other to have played the game.
Our Monte-Carlo Masters 2019 Tip/Prediction:
[maxbutton id=”4″ text=”Nadal to win the title: 1/1 (bet365)” ]
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