Il Masters 1000 di Monte Carlo ha perso uno dei due finalisti dello scorso anno. Kei Nishikori (ATP 6), testa di serie numero 5, ha infatti clamorosamente mancato la sua entrata in materia nel secondo turno del torneo. Il giapponese è stato battuto dal francese Pierre-Hugues Herbert (49), che si è imposto con il punteggio di 7-5 6-4 e che affronterà negli ottavi il croato Borna Coric (13).
Esordio invece senza problemi per il numero due al mondo Rafael Nadal che ha liquidato in fretta il connazionale Roberto Bautista Agut (22) rifilandogli un netto doppio 6-1 in un'ora e un quarto di gioco. Il maiorchino si troverà ora di fronte il bulgaro Grigor Dimitrov (28). Hanno superato i sedicesimi anche Alexander Zverev (3), Stefanos Tsitsipas (8), Daniil Medvedev (14) e Fabio Fognini (18) che ha potuto approfittare del forfait di Gilles Simon (26) per dei problemi fisici.
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