After being drawn in the same half on Friday, the two players may play each other in the ATP Masters 1000 semi-finals. In their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, Djokovic leads Alcaraz 3-2 after the former defeated the latter in the Nitto ATP Finals in November.
The top-seeded Serbian, a two-time Monte-Carlo winner, will face a qualifier or Roman Safiullin in the opening round. In round three, he might square off against Lorenzo Musetti. In The Principality, the Italian overcame Djokovic in the third round of the previous season. The victor of Musetti’s matchup against 13th seed Taylor Fritz will face either Adrian Mannarino or #NextGenATP Frenchman Arthur Fils.
The defending champion, Andrey Rublev, is favored to play Djokovic in the quarterfinals after starting against Alexei Popyrin or a qualifier. In the third round, sixth seed Rublev might play eleventh seed Alex de Minaur. The Australian’s first opponent is 2014 winner Stan Wawrinka.
Having fallen in the second round of the 2022 tournament, third seed Alcaraz is playing in his second Monte-Carlo event. The Spaniard, who has defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime or a qualifier to win seven tour-level clay-court championships, gets underway. In the third round, he is slated to face Ugo Humbert, the champion of Dubai, and in the quarterfinals, Casper Ruud.
Jannik Sinner will look to continue his strong play and win his fourth title of the year in the bottom half of the draw. The 22-year-old Italian, who is 22-1 on the year, takes the field against either Sebastian Korda or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the 2022 finalists. In the third round, Sinner might play 16th seed Alexander Bublik, and in the quarterfinals, he might play Holger Rune, the winner from the previous year. Rune starts out against Emil Ruusuvuori or Matteo Arnaldi.
Sinner might face Daniil Medvedev, ranked fourth, and Alexander Zverev, ranked fifth, in the semifinals. In the second round, Zverev plays either Daniel Evans or Sebastian Ofner, while Medvedev takes against Jordan Thompson or French wild card Gael Monfils.
In his opening encounter, 12th-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas, a two-time Monte-Carlo champion, takes on Laslo Djere. Hubert Hurkacz vs. Jack Draper and Grigor Dimitrov vs. Monegasque wild card Valentin Vacherot are two more first-round matches to watch.
