Monte Carlo Masters ratings: One 0/10 and two 1s dished out as Sinner and Alcaraz shine | Tennis | Sport

The first big tournament of the European clay swing, the Monte Carlo Masters, has officially come to an end, with Jannik Sinner beating his biggest rival, Carlos Alcaraz, to win his fourth straight Masters 1000 title, and his first big title on clay. It was the first ‘Sincaraz’ meeting of 2026, and the world No. 1 ranking was up for grabs, making it extra tasty. And Sinner – who had never reached the final here before – came back from a break down in both sets to win7-6(5) 6-3.

The semi-finals were also a dream for Monte Carlo Masters organisers, featuring the top three seeds – Alcaraz, Sinner, and Alexander Zverev – and their own hometown hero, Valentin Vacherot. While the world’s three best players enjoyed deep runs in Monaco, the same couldn’t be said for some other former top players.

No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev suffered a 6-0 6-0 thrashing in his opening match, while former champion Stefanos Tsitsipas looked completely lost as he suffered a first-ever first-round exit at this tournament. Cameron Norrie was the only Brit in the draw, and looked set to cause an upset before falling away in round two. Meanwhile, teenage sensation Joao Fonseca showed his potential yet again at a Masters 1000 tournament.

Express Sport hands out player ratings to the top three seeds and other players who made an impression after an exciting week at the Monte Carlo Country Club.

Jannik Sinner: 10/10. Sinner keeps on achieving feats rarely seen in this sport. Last month, he became the first man to complete the Sunshine Double without dropping a set. Now, he’s become the second man – after Novak Djokovic in 2015 – to start the season by winning Indian Wells, Miami, and Monte Carlo back-to-back-to-back. What was most impressive about Sinner’s triumph in Monaco was how little turnaround time he had after winning the Miami Open. The Monte Carlo Masters started just seven days after he was crowned the champion in the Hard Rock Stadium. Clay is admittedly Sinner’s weakest surface, but he needed just one week to adjust to the dirt. By the end of the tournament, he figured out how to beat Alcaraz on clay, and won the last five games in a row to do it. He’ll be back on top tomorrow and looks unstoppable.

Carlos Alcaraz: 9/10. Barring a lapse in the middle of his round-of-16 match against Tomas Etcheverry, which saw him lose the second set, Alcaraz looked unbeatable on his way to the final. He saw off worthy opponents like Alexander Bublik in dominant fashion, and looked on course to defend his Monte Carlo Masters title. But the final was a different story. Both Alcaraz and Sinner struggled in the windy conditions on Sunday, though the Spaniard definitely seemed more troubled, and was unable to hold onto an early break lead in both sets. He made a few too many mistakes and seemed a little more impatient compared to Sinner.

Alexander Zverev: 7/10. Zverev was in danger of losing his opening match here for the second year running when he trailed qualifier Cristian Garin 0-4 and 1-5 in the final set, but he won six games on the trot to stay alive, and then reached his first semi-final here in four years. But he suffered a fourth straight Masters semi-final defeat to Sinner, and this was even more one-sided than their recent Indian Wells and Miami meetings. The German is stuck in a cycle where he can go as far as his seeding projects, but still can’t get over the line against the guys at the very top. For Zverev to get higher marks, he’ll need to start beating those players.

Valentin Vacherot: 9/10. Another fairytale Masters 1000 run for the Monegasque player, this time on home soil. A year ago, Vacherot was ranked outside of the world’s top 250 and needed a wildcard to play here. He returned as the world No. 23 and a reigning Masters champion after winning in Shanghai last October. And he made it all the way to the semi-finals, taking out top-five seeds Lorenzo Musetti – last year’s finalist – and Alex de Minaur en route. Vacherot battled through some crazy three-setters before losing to Alcaraz in the semis. The Monte Carlo crowd couldn’t have asked for more from him, and he’ll now move up to No. 17 in the world.

Daniil Medvedev: 0/10. It’s rare to dish out a zero, and things have to be dire to warrant it. But unfortunately for Medvedev, who was No. 3 in the race coming into Monte Carlo and seemed to be back near his best, his stunning opening-round exit warrants it. Medvedev suffered the first double-bagel loss of his career to Matteo Berrettini, who, granted, is a former top-10er, but had never beaten Medvedev before, and is currently ranked 90th. It felt like a case of Medvedev underperforming. Three winners, 28 unforced errors, 49 minutes on court. He might not like the clay, but this was a dismal showing by his standards.

Joao Fonseca: 8/10. What a run Fonseca has had at his last three Masters 1000 tournaments – he’s lost to each of the top three. Alcaraz, Sinner, and now Zverev. The 19-year-old broke new ground this week, reaching his first Masters quarter-final. He outlasted Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech in round two, and then looked virtually unstoppable against Matteo Berrettini in the round of 16. Fonseca only lost out to Zverev, but still managed to push the world No. 3 to a deciding set. This could be the start of an impressive clay season for the young Brazilian.

Stefanos Tsitsipas: 1/10. This has been Tsitsipas’ hunting ground in recent years. Despite some of his recent woes, you’d expect the Greek star to find something extra at the Monte Carlo Masters, given that he’s a three-time former champion. But he looked completely out of sorts against Francisco Cerundolo and, after failing to serve out the first set, never looked like he was in it anymore. The three-time former champ hit 39 unforced errors and his backhand really let him down. Tsitsipas gets a point for his efforts in the second set, winning four games in a row from 0-4 down. But something like that should be a turning point in the match. Instead, he was immediately broken and lost 7-5 6-4.

Grigor Dimitrov: 1/10. It’s been a tough old stretch for Dimitrov since he came back from that horror Wimbledon injury, and his woes continued in Monaco, where he went out in the first round. The former No. 3 did well to force a decider against Tomas Etcheverry but fell away again. He struggled on the return and made 34 unforced errors off his groundstrokes. A quarter-finalist last year, Dimitrov will now fall out of the top 100 for the first time since 2012.

Cameron Norrie: 4/10. The only Brit we had in the draw this year bowed out in the second round. Norrie earned a gritty three-set win over Miomir Kecmanovic before bowing out. But he really should have beaten sixth seed Alex de Minaur in round two. The British No. 1 beat ‘Demon’ a few weeks ago in Indian Wells and was the better player by performance rating in this match, but couldn’t take his chances. Norrie blew a set point in the first, and then lost it in a tiebreak. He then broke at the beginning of the decider, only to lose six of the next seven games.