Fed Cup and Monte Carlo Masters

Wins last Sunday for:

Steve Johnson in Houston

Pablo Andújar in Marrakech 

Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in Bogotá 

Elise Mertens in Lugano 

This week the ATP Tour is concentrated on the first clay court Masters 1000 tournament for 2018, Monte Carlo.

The top players are assembled in Monaco, less world number two, Roger  Federer, who is skipping the entire clay court season.  

Other top ten players missing are Juan Martin del Potro, Kevin Anderson and John Isner.

The top seven seeds have first round byes, and so does lucky loser from qualifying - Guillermo Garcia-Lopez - who takes the place in the draw vacated by Pablo Carreno Busta, a late withdrawal.

While the men are playing games in the French Riviera, the WTA Tour is having a break, allowing the Fed Cup to take centre stage this weekend.

However, a second tier WTA event is taking place - the Biyuan Cup Zhengzhou Women’s Tennis Open in Zhengzhou, China.

The Monte Carlo Masters has started, with 14 of 24 first round matches completed.  Of those, only five went the three sets, including Kei Nishikori’s victory over Tomas Berdych (12).  A tough draw for Berdych, considering Kei is a former regular in the top ten, as high as four.

Mainly injury has forced Nishikori down the rankings, and having to play seeded opponents so early in tournaments.

Novak Djokovic (9) is, together with Federer and Murray, in a select group of highly decorated players whose careers have been hijacked in recent years by injury.  Novak’s comeback has been far from ideal - certainly not the ultra smooth recovery ride experienced by Roger.

He has begun his Monte Carlo run without any drama, though, ditching qualifier Dusan Lajovic 6-0 6-1.

Life potentially becomes tougher from here for the Serb star - he has Borna Coric in the second round, then likely Dominic Thiem (5) in the round of sixteen. Thiem was 0-5 h2h against Djokovic until he sunk him in the quarters at Roland Garros last year in straight sets. If Novak survives Thiem, he should have Rafa Nadal (1) to face in the quarters.

The Fed Cup has reached the semi final stage and these are the line ups for the weekend:

Germany v Czech Republic (3) indoors on clay at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Germany 

Nominated players include:

Germany 

Julia Goerges ranked 11

Angie Kerber ranked 12

Tatjana Maria ranked 61

Czech Republic 

Karolina Pliskova ranked 6

Petra Kvitová ranked 10

Barbora Strycova ranked 26

France (4) v USA (2) indoors on clay at the Arena Du Pays D’Aix in Aix-en-Provence, France

Nominated players include:

France 

Kiki Mladenovic ranked 20

Pauline Parmentier ranked 122

Amandine Hasse ranked 204

USA

Sloane Stephens ranked 9

Madison Keys ranked 13

CoCo Vandeweghe ranked 16

It remains disappointing that top ten player Caroline Garcia still won’t put her hand up to play for her country (France).  Instead she only wants to play for her individual glory and France will subsequently struggle in the semis, depending on Mladenovic to carry the huge load as she did against Belgium in the quarters