Argentinian tennis player Tomás Etcheverry played at a very high level and put on a great match against Spaniard and world number one Carlos Alcaraz, but it was not enough, and he was eliminated in the round of 16 of the Monte Carlo Masters. Alcaraz, the defending champion of this tournament, won 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 after two hours and 23 minutes of play. The match could not have started better for Alcaraz, who in the blink of an eye took the first set with a commanding 6-1 after breaking his opponent's serve three times. In the second set, Etcheverry's game improved as he quickly reacted and began to steer the set in his favor with two breaks to go up 4-1. Although Alcaraz was very close to overcoming the deficit, the Argentine was able to hold his last two service games to win the second set 6-4 and put suspense into the match. However, in the decisive set, Alcaraz broke Etcheverry's serve at the start to quickly go up 3-0 and held all his service games to secure the victory with a 6-3 final score. Despite the defeat, Etcheverry played at a great level and showed that his good results from the last few months were not a coincidence, but the result of his upward trajectory. In his previous matches, Etcheverry defeated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and Frenchman Térence Atmane, while Alcaraz debuted in the second round, where he eliminated another Argentine, Sebastián Báez. According to the Argentine News Agency, Alcaraz's opponent in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 will be Kazakhstani Alexander Bublik (8th), who earlier defeated Czech Jiri Lehecka (11th) in straight sets. In another match on Thursday, Italian and world number two Jannik Sinner defeated Czech Tomas Machac 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-3. In the next round, his opponent will be Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (6th), who benefited from the withdrawal of Norwegian Casper Ruud (9th). Meanwhile, Brazilian Joao Fonseca made a splash by comfortably defeating Italian Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 for the first time.
