Defending champion Andrey Rublev was knocked out of the Monte Carlo Masters in a 6-4, 6-4 second-round loss to Australian Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday as world No.2 Jannik Sinner eased through his first test.
Popyrin broke in the third game of the first set, but Rublev broke to take a 3-1 lead in the second, only for the Australian hit back immediately. A further break made it 5-4 to Popyrin and he held serve to reach the third round for the first time.
Popyrin will face fellow Australian Alex de Minaur next, after the 11th seed beat Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Italian Sinner, who won his first major title at the Australian Open in January, eased into the third round with a 6-1, 6-2 win over American Sebastian Korda.
Korda won their last meeting, in Adelaide last year, but was no match for the in-form Sinner, who also won this year’s Miami Open and Rotterdam Opens.
Twice champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 12th seed, also reached the third round after crushing Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina 6-1, 6-0 and will next face German fifth seed Alexander Zverev.
French 14th seed Ugo Humbert defeated China’s Zhizhen Zhang 6-1, 6-4, and will face Lorenzo Sonego in the third round after the Italian, brought in as a lucky loser to replace the injured Carlos Alcaraz, beat Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-5.
Daniil Medvedev, the fourth seed, battled off a mid-match resurgence from the dynamic Frenchman Gael Monflis to record a 6-2, 6-4 win. “Gael is very good in defence, so sometimes you are scared to attack him,” Medvedev said.
Casper Ruud dispatched Chilean Alejandro Tabilo 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 23 minutes to reach the third round.
Bopanna out
India's Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden lost their round-of-16 men's doubles match to Mate Pavić of Croatia and Marcelo Arévalo of El Salvador 3-6, 6-7 (6-8).
In men's singles, Sumit Nagal was trailing 3-6, 1-2 in his second-round match against Holger Rune of Denmark, when rain led to a suspension of the contest.
Written with Reuters inputs