Today I went to the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 semis. I took the train from Nice to the Monaco train station, then walked about 45 minutes to the Monte Carlo Country Club (which is actually in France, not Monte Carlo). I walked mostly in Beausoleil which is a hilly town…not only are there lots of stairs (though my route was mostly flat…really), and public elevators to transport people up and down the various levels. There are pretty buildings too…especially bank buildings.
There are small posters of players (and of Taylor Fritz, who didn’t even play the tournament) on posts along my walk. I did not see one of Vacherot though, and he’s from Monaco and now a top 20 player. When I arrived on site, I saw Stephanos Tsistipas was practicing…he has huge (very long) strokes for sure.
I missed the doubles (watching practice) but saw Jannik Sinner vs Alexander Zverev. It was a mismatch today, Sinner’s strokes, especially his forehand are more streamlined than Zverev’s. Both tried a lot of drop shots…Sinner’s mostly worked because he had Zverev on defense when he used his (and far back in the court); Zverev didn’t have Sinner on defense often and he telegraphed his drop shot I thought and overused it. Both returned very far back, near the fence..between them there was 1 ace (by Sinner). I hadn’t seen either play for a long time…Sinner’s ground game was extremely impressive.
The next match was local Monégasque Valentin Vacherot and world #1 Carlos Alcaraz. Alcaraz..now he, as we all know, has an awesome drop shot…the spin on it was crazy. He had incredible racquet head speed especially on his forehand, which had a lot more shape than you can see on TV. He also flummoxed Vacherot in the first set with his slices, but Vacherot was better in the second set, scoring a break against Alcaraz (after Alcaraz had broken). At 5-5 there was a crazy point and Alcaraz asked for a video review because he didn’t think Vacherot had reached the ball on one bounce…but Vacherot ws determined to have won the point. The delay though (at 40-15) cost him his focus…Alcaraz won the next four points and served out the match. Vacherot has a huge serve, good serve and volley (which he abandoned at the end of the set) and decent groundies…and he’s a big tall guy.
I shopped a bit, watched a set of the doubles and took the train back to Nice, this time from a train stop 10 minutes from the MCCC, sort of a makeshift temporary stop.
The weather was nice after an overcast morning and I was able to see the sea (better than the players, I had a nosebleed seat) and yachts lingering by the tennis club.
The spectators I must say were extremely well dressed…lots of people wearing dresses or white pants and nice tops (women) and suit jackets or long sleeve dress shirts (men)…lots of ladies in hats, lots of white tops. Quite a contrast to the attire of spectators at Indian Wells, another masters event. The food venues were busy all day and the merchandise stores were packed too. Also, bring a paper ticket or have the original one in the app…they do not accept screen shots. I had printed mine out (black/white is ok) fortunately).
