For the best part of two decades, men’s tennis has been dominated by ‘the Big Three’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Now, the sport has entered a fascinating era where Nadal and Djokovic are still present, but significant rivals have now emerged from the next generation of players to compete with them.
On no surface is this more apparent than clay. The likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas are all genuine threats to the supremacy of these established players, which means that as the tennis season heads into its clay court season, there’s plenty to watch out for. The ATP Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo is up first, and we have all the latest odds and best bets with bookmaker William Hill ahead of the first ball being served.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 8th, 11:00 P.M. (GMT)
Looking at the outright winner odds for this first clay court Masters tournament of the year, one man stands head and shoulders above the rest of the pack: Novak Djokovic. The Serbian World No. 1 is paying 2.00 for the tournament win, far ahead of the next most likely candidate, which is Stefanos Tsitsipas at 8.00. Plenty of others are milling around with similar odds as Jannik Sinner comes in as the third favourite at 11.00, followed by Casper Ruud, Holger Rune and Daniil Medvedev who all sit between 13.00 and 15.00.
Monte Carlo will be a very interesting tournament for several reasons. First, it’s the start of the European clay season, which is a significant shift from the North American hard courts that have most recently been in play. Second, several big names have withdrawn—namely, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Both Alcaraz and Nadal would have been in the top five favourites at the bookies had they been playing. Stefanos Tsitsipas is in the draw but has been carrying an injury through the hard court season and not playing his best tennis as a result.
Finally, Monte Carlo sees the return of Novak Djokovic. The current World No. 1 has been unable to play since he won the Australian Open due to travel restrictions into America because of his unvaccinated status. Novak has been in hot form with only one loss this year for his 15 wins—titles in Adelaide and Melbourne. However, the Serbian also typically starts the clay court season slowly, building towards Roland Garros.
The big question is whether Djokovic can turn around his past record at Monte Carlo where he’s suffered a host of first and second round losses over recent years. On the one hand, there’s no reason to believe that he would since his approach to the clay court season has typically produced excellent results in the more important tournaments, i.e. Roland Garros. On the other hand, he has had an unusual lead up this time not playing the Sunshine Double and perhaps will be in better cardio condition to make a fast start.
We suggest taking a punt on one of the in-form hard court players right now such as Jannik Sinner or Daniil Medvedev. Medvedev is no clay court expert but this may just be the opening he needs, playing in a weakened field with a lot of confidence from his recent win in Miami.
