After the first five days of competition, the quarter-finals of the first clay Masters tournament of the year ATP1000 Monte Carlo were announced, with eight seeded players successfully joining each other, with Djokovic and Sinner leading the race for the title.
Djokovic defeated Italy's Musetti in straight sets in the third round to avenge last year's defeat at the tournament and secure a ticket to the quarterfinals. Djokovic's next opponent will be Australian No. 1 Deminaur, who eliminated compatriot Popyrin in two sets to advance. In the United Cup earlier this year, De Minaur beat Djokovic in straight sets.
No.8 seed Ruud and No.14 seed Ember will battle for the other place in the last four. Ruud had a first-round bye, and he has since eliminated Tabilo and 10th seed Hurkacz to make it two games in a row. Ember had previously eliminated Kolya, Zhang Zhizhen and Sonego.
Zone 3/4 Tsitsipas and Khachanov meet in the quarterfinals. Tsitsipas, the No. 12 seed, managed to defeat No. 5 seed Zverev in the third round and defeated the top five players again after nearly a year and a half. No. 15 seed Khachanov eliminated Norrie, Serundolo and No. 4 seed Dmitry Medvedev.
Sinner, who has been on a hot steam this year, continued his fine run in Monte Carlo, knocking out Korda and Struff in his first two games, dropping just nine games in total, and putting Sinner up to a staggering 24-1 so far this season. Sinner will next face another post-00 rising star, Rune, who knocked out Nagar and Dimitrov in three sets in a one-day doubles.
Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinals matchups:
[1] Djokovic VS [11] De Minaur
[14] Ember VS [8] Ruud
[12] Tsitsipas VS [15] Khachanov
[7] Rune VS [2] Sinner