Carlos Alcaraz will have a difficult task in his opening match at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters, as he'll take on one of two possible challenging opponents.
The Spanish player comets to the Principality after playing well in Miami, where he lost only in the quarter-finals of the tournament to an inspired Grigor Dimitrov, who then reached the final.
At the first ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season on the clay, Alcaraz will have a difficult job because of various reasons, and one of them is apparent injury which seems to be hindering his progress.
The 20-year-old appeared with a heavily taped right forearm in his practice in Monte Carlo, which, according to the reports, he had to abandon early as a precaution.
Luckily for the two-time major winner, he is one of the seeded players, and that means he has a first-round bye at the tournament, starting in the second round against one of the two players who succeed in their first-round match.
In his part of the draw, that represents a brutal matchup. When the draw first came up, Alcaraz knew that he would take on either a qualifier or Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is a former Top 10 player.
After the qualifying draw was over and players were drawn into spots in the main draw, Alcaraz's draw seemingly got even more brutal, as the player drawn into the qualifier spot was Luca Nardi.
The 20-year-old Italian recorded the biggest win of his career only recently, when he stunned Novak Djokovic at the Indian Wells Open. Now, he comes to Monte Carlo after winning an ATP Challenger tournament in Naples, and with the qualifying in Monaco, he's already on a seven-match winning streak.
Regardless of who wins the first-round match, which is one of the first matches played on Monday, Alcaraz will face a really daunting task in his first match at the tournament, running from April 7th to 14th, 2024.