Carlos Alcaraz sent out a big statement to his rivals as he confirmed he is the man to beat on clay courts with his win at the Monte Carlo Masters.<\/p>\n
The date of this exciting Spaniard\u2019s victory was also a significant moment for his biggest rival, Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n
In the first of a Monday \u2018Heroes and Villains\u2019 columns highlighting the good, the bad and the ugly in tennis, here\u2019s a look back on the week that was.<\/p>\n
Player of the Week \u2013 Carlos Alcaraz<\/strong><\/p>\n The newly promoted world No 2 has been brutally honest in his comments over the last few weeks, as he admitted the pressures of dealing with the expectations he has created around himself have been a big burden.<\/p>\n Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz set the bar so high with his sparkling start to his career, but he continues to find a way to back it up with more success and he was magnificent for periods of his run to victory in Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n The injury to Lorenzo Musetti may have taken some gloss away from his victory in the final, but Alcaraz confirmed he is the king of clay with his dynamic and thrilling win.<\/p>\n On the way down \u2013 Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/strong><\/p>\n With a huge haul of ATP Ranking points to defend over this period of the season, Tsitsipas was under incredible pressure to defend the Monte Carlo Masters title he won last year.<\/p>\n Yet he was always likely to come up short and his quarter-final exit ensured he dropped out of the top ten of the rankings, with his position likely to get worse.<\/p>\n Tsitsipas was a finalist at last year\u2019s Barcelona Open and, with those points dropping off his ranking this week, he is down at No 19 in the Live ATP Rankings.<\/p>\n The Greek needs to find his best form on clay quickly or his time at the top of the game may be coming to an end.<\/p>\n Why was April 13th significant?<\/strong><\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s Monte Carlo Masters win was a significant moment in the tennis season on Sunday, yet his victory came on a day that has been circled in the diary of his greatest rival for several weeks.<\/p>\n World No 1 Jannik Sinner has not been permitted to practice with professional players during the opening phase of his three-month drug suspension, but April 13 was the day he was allowed to get back on court ahead of his comeback at next month\u2019s Rome Masters.<\/p>\n We can expect to see images on social media of Sinner returning to full-time training over the next few days, with the tennis world holding its breath for the comeback of the man still dominating at the top of the ATP Rankings.<\/p>\n Missing out \u2013 Billie Jean King Cup<\/strong><\/p>\n Some great stories were written on court during the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers, but they struggled to steal the media limelight amid the excitement of the Monte Carlo Masters.<\/p>\n The final line-up for September\u2019s Billie Jean King Cup final in China will see Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Spain, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, USA and the host nation battle it out for the biggest prize in women\u2019s team tennis in Shenzhen this September.<\/p>\n Money and points earned by Alcaraz, Musetti, Fils and Djokovic at Monte Carlo Masters<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal react to Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s Monte Carlo Masters title win<\/a><\/p>\n Yet will the world be watching as the Billie Jean King Cup battles for space on a crowded media landscape? Sadly, it seems as if this competition is fighting a losing battle to retain attention and that is a shame because it deserves to retain a strong place on the tennis stage.<\/p>\n Stat of the week<\/strong><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner may be banned from tennis as he serves his doping suspension, but he continues to hold a strong lead at the top of the world rankings.<\/p>\n Now he is joining some big names on the ATP list as since the inaugural ATP Tour season in 1990, only four players have had a longer opening run as world No 1 than Sinner, who is toasting his 45th week at the top \u2013 Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n Shot of the week \u2013 Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s tweener lob<\/p>\n Ridiculous! pic.twitter.com\/05eGwJc9Q4<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Kevin Palmer (@RealKevinPalmer) April 10, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The post Tennis365 Heroes and Villains: Carlos Alcaraz takes top prize, as Stefanos Tsitsipas is on the slide<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz sent out a big statement to his rivals as he confirmed he is the man to beat on clay courts with his win at the Monte Carlo Masters. The date of this exciting Spaniard\u2019s victory was also a significant moment for his biggest rival, Jannik Sinner. In the first of a Monday \u2018Heroes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h3>\n
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