Thus, spectators, young and old, who came in large numbers on this Saturday of holiday traffic, were able to admire the tennis strokes of Rafael Nadal, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Gaël Monfils, and among many others, Gilles Simon.
The tournament in the French Riviera is the first major clay-court competition of the season and all players rush to participate as confirmed by Argentine Guillermo Vilas, a three-time winner in the Principality: “Monte-Carlo is part of the history of tennis. The entire circuit loves it, and no one wants it to disappear especially since there’s an incredible tradition here. Moreover, in recent years, whoever wins in Monaco usually reaches at least the finals in Roland Garros, so it’s a very important tournament.”
So, the meeting is set to see who will succeed Rafael Nadal next Sunday, and whether the winner will make it to the finals of the second Grand Slam of the season on the Parisian clay in seven weeks.
Here is the draw of the tournament:
Federer [1] vs. bye
Qualifier vs. Simon
Monfils vs. Verdasco
Grosjean vs. Karlovic [15]
Robredo [12] vs. Wawrinka
Stepanek vs. Soderling
Haas vs. Qualifier
Nalbandian [6] vs. bye
Djokovic [3] vs. bye
Kuerten vs. Ljubicic
Mahut vs. Volandri
Lopez vs. Murray [14]
Moya [10] vs. Querrey
Calleri vs. Seppi
Santoro vs. Qualifier
Bye vs. Gasquet [7]
Youzhny [8] vs. bye
Andreev vs. Tursunov
Almagro vs. Lisnard
Lee vs. Monaco [11]
Kohlschreiber [16] vs. Acasuso
Cilic vs. Kiefer
Chela vs. Qualifier
Bye vs. Davydenko [4]
Ferrer [5] vs. bye
Safin vs. Malisse
Qualifier vs. Starace
Tipsarevic vs. Mathieu [9]
Ferrero [13] vs. Llodra
Nieminen vs. Qualifier
Qualifier vs. Ancic
Bye vs. Nadal [2]
Photo credits: GettyImages
