Lorenzo Sonego had the tournament of his career at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters this past week. Cheered on by the Italian fans, the twenty-three-year old rode the wave of confidence to the quarterfinals. It was his best showing at a Masters tournament; unfortunately, it ended when he came up against the red-hot Serbian, Dusan Lajovic. The young Italian will be hoping that he can take this form into the next major tournament, the French Open, which is scheduled to start on May 26th.
| NAME | SPOTS MOVED | NEW RANKING |
| Lorenzo Sonego (ITA) | UP 30 | 66 CAREER HIGH |
| Dusan Lajovic (SRB) | UP 24 | 24 CAREER HIGH |
| Mischa Zverev (GER) | DOWN 19 | 96 |
| Hugo Dellien (BOL) | DOWN 17 | 92 |
| Andreas Seppi (ITA) | DOWN 16 | 62 |
| Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) | DOWN 15 | 43 |
| Guido Andreozzi (ARG) | DOWN 13 | 97 |
| Cameron Norrie (GBR) | UP 11 | 45 CAREER HIGH |
ATP: the top ten members remained the same; however, Kevin Anderson and Kei Nishikori traded places to #6 and #7 respectively. Novak Djokovic remains at #1.
WTA: there were no changes in the top ten members. Due the Federation Cup being played over the weekend, there were no WTA tournaments. Naomi Osaka remains at #1. There were also no significant ranking changes in the top hundred.
SPECIAL MENTION: Astra Sharma broke into the top hundred at number one-hundred (a career high ranking for the Australian).
Rafael Nadal, the king of clay, ran into his nemesis, Fabio Fognini. If Nadal is lacking confidence in his game, he is vulnerable to the attacking and unpredictable style of play of the Italian. This is not the first time that Fabio has defeated Nadal on clay (this is the third time). The Italian has also defeated Nadal on hard court at the US Open in 2015 (after the Spaniard was up two sets to none). Makes you wonder, just how much Fognini has gotten into Nadal’s head?
This was Nadal’s first match since his withdrawal from Indian Wells last month due to injury and frankly, I am not convinced that he is fully recovered. I think Nadal played because he was the defending champion; however, mentally and physically he was not fully prepared for the battle. The evidence was in the percentage of points won on his second serves and the number of times he was broken during this tournament. I hope that he will quickly rediscover his form because he has a lot of points to defend during this clay court season.
SOURCE OF IMAGES: Zimbio.com (Getty Images Europe).
