World No. 1 Rafael Nadal received a thunderous welcome to Court Rainier III on Wednesday and he didn’t disappoint the capacity crowd on his return to the ATP World Tour at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

The Spanish superstar, a record 10-time champion, was fluent and impressive in his 6-1, 6-3 second-round victory over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia in 68 minutes.

Nadal improved to a 64-4 record at the historic ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event to set up a meeting against Russian Karen Khachanov, who was rock solid from the baseline in his 6-2, 6-2 win over French wild card Gilles Simon.

Nadal must retain the Monte-Carlo title, which would represent his 31st Masters 1000 crown, to remain at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. Otherwise his Swiss rival, Roger Federer, will return to the top spot on 23 April. The 31-year-old Nadal is in his 170th week at No. 1, tying John McEnroe for the sixth-most weeks in rankings history (since August 1973).

Nadal raced out to a 3-0 lead against Bedene in their first match since the 2016 second round and broke a second time in the sixth game with great variety of spin and power. When Bedene saved a break point in the first game of the second set, Nadal had to bide his time and later broke serve twice more — for a 4-3 advantage and then in the final game.

Bedene drops to a 9-3 mark on red dirt this season, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires (l. to Thiem) in February. He is now 0-17 lifetime against Top 10 stars.

Already with two clay-court match wins this year in a Davis Cup tie for Spain, today marked Nadal’s first completed match at an ATP World Tour tournament since November 2017. In January, he sustained a hip injury during his Australian Open quarter-final against Marin Cilic.

Did You Know?
Rafael Nadal’s only previous meeting against Aljaz Bedene was also in the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters second round. In 2016, Nadal won 6-3, 6-3.

Novak Djokovic won a match of small margins on Wednesday in a wonderful clash that was full of clean hitting at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. The two-time former champion, a resident in the Principality of Monaco, needed 10 match point opportunities to put away Croatia’s Borna Coric, who, this year, has showcased his huge potential.

Ninth seed Djokovic beat Coric 7-6(2), 7-5 in two hours and 16 minutes to reach the third round, where he will face fifth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem, one of the ATP World Tour’s strongest performers on clay courts over the past two years.

Watch Hot Shot: Djokovic Unleashes

Coric first saved two match points at 3-5, 15/40 in the second set, then recovered from 0/40 on Djokovic’s serve, before saving a further four match points in a 12-minute and 46-second 10th game. Djokovic immediately tightened up his game to break to 15, courtesy of a backhand error from Coric, which was the same shot that the Croatian hit long minutes later to end the encounter.

Djokovic, who is now 32-9 at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament – where he lifted the 2013 (d. Nadal) and 2015 (d. Berdych) trophies, will next prepare to meet Thiem on Thursday. The Serbian leads 5-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head, but Thiem did beat Djokovic in straight sets in their last match – the 2017 Roland Garros quarter-finals.

In the first set, Djokovic broke to 30 for a 3-1 lead, striking cleanly on a backhand, but it was the very shot that let him down three games later when Coric broke back. The set turned at 5-5, 15/40, with Djokovic in trouble out wide, but Coric snatched at a forehand down the line and hit the ball into the net. It was the first of four successive groundstroke errors for the 21-year-old Croatian. Djokovic took control of the tie-break, moving inside the baseline to expose the angles of the court and Coric’s movement.

The go-for broke, clean-ball striking — particularly backhand to backhand — continued in the second set, resulting in three straight service breaks, before former World No. 1 Djokovic regained the momentum prior to a tense finale.

Last month, Coric, who is No. 39 in the ATP Rankings, advanced to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Federer).

Elsewhere, No. 11 seed Roberto Bautista proved to be too strong for his Spanish compatriot Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 7-6(5) in one hour and 38 minutes. He will next meet sixth-seeded Belgian David Goffin in the third round.

Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber lost just six of his first-service points in an impressive 6-4, 6-2 win over last year’s finalist, No. 15 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain, in 84 minutes. Kohlschreiber now plays fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori recovered from a slow start — as he did in his first-round win over Czech 2015 finalist Tomas Berdych — to get the better of Russian Daniil Medvedev at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Tuesday.

Nishikori, who is this week competing at the Monte-Carlo Country Club for the first time since 2012, bounced back from 1-3 in the opener to win 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 41 minutes. He will now play Italian qualifier Andreas Seppi or lucky loser Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain in the third round.

“He was better than me initially, but I tried to stay calm and began to dominate from the baseline,” said Nishikori. “I played better in the second set. I will now rest and prepare for tomorrow, when I hope to play well.”

Medvedev gained the early advantage when Nishikori hit a backhand wide in the fourth game, but the former World No. 4 broke back immediately. From 4-5 in the first set, Nishikori won five straight games and thereafter continued to threaten Medvedev’s serve, causing the 22-year-old Sydney International titlist to rush.

In winning 14 of the last 19 points, including a third break of serve for 5-2, Nishikori recorded his sixth match win of the year.

Did You Know?
Kei Nishikori has a 0.716 FedEx ATP Win/Loss Record on clay, with 73 wins and just 29 losses on the surface in his career.

Benoit Paire suffered a tough defeat Tuesday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, losing in three sets against Feliciano Lopez in two hours, 19 minutes. But the Frenchman, No. 48 in the ATP Rankings, won over at least one person at the Monte-Carlo Country Club — a ballboy.

During a changeover, the young ballboy who was holding the umbrella over the 28-year-old was not covering Paire from the sun. But instead of getting upset during the heat of an intense match, Paire had some fun, kindly helping the youngster into position. While he did not walk off the court with a victory, Paire left with at least one extra fan. And when an older, taller ballboy with higher reach stepped in to better shield Paire from the sun, he even appeared to offer consolation as if he missed his new friend.

There’s always someone who thinks they know better than you, isn’t there?! ?@benoitpaire #RolexMCMasters pic.twitter.com/g5ZJ9Daeb6

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 17, 2018

Alexander Zverev closed out 10 hours of play on Tuesday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters with around 200 fans clustered around Court Rainier III wrapped in warm jackets or with towels and rugs over their legs.

Under the floodlights, well after the day-high temperature of 22°C had plummeted, Zverev found his rhythm towards the end of the second set in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 second-round victory over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller that ended at 8:46 p.m. local time.

All four matches scheduled on the Monte-Carlo Country Club’s main show court, beginning at 11 a.m., went to three sets on Tuesday, including victories for Dominic Thiem (saved 1 M.P. vs. Rublev), Grigor Dimitrov (d. Herbert) and Mischa Zverev (d. Pouille).

Concentration lapses hindered the younger Zverev brother in the first set, but service breaks in the first and ninth games of the second set gave the German, who turns 21 on Friday, the momentum. From a 4-3 advantage in the second set, third seed Zverev won five straight games to lead 3-0 in the decider against Muller, who hit his fourth double fault to end the two-hour, three-minute match.

Zverev, who won 34 of his 41 first-service points (83 per cent) to improve to a 15-6 match record on the year, will now prepare for a meeting on Thursday against No. 13 seed Fabio Fognini of Italy or Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.

Fognini, who reached the 2013 Monte-Carlo semi-finals (l. to Djokovic), recovered from a 2-5 deficit in the second set to beat qualifier Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 6-4, 7-5 for his 299th match win. The Italian now challenges Struff, a 6-3, 6-2 victor over Yuichi Sugita of Japan.

Defending Doubles Champion Advances
In the only doubles match of the day, defending Monte-Carlo doubles champion Rohan Bopanna (w/Cuevas) and partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin ousted Dubai finalist Jamie Cerretani and partner Andreas Seppi 6-1, 7-5. The Indian-French pair broke on four occasions to advance to the second round, where they will face No. 7 seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

Did You Know?
Zverev had lost his only previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting against Muller last year in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Wednesday would be a mighty fine day to catch a flight – or a ride – to Monte-Carlo and plop yourself in front of Court Rainier III. Two former champions and the second seed will compete on the main show court of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, the season’s first clay-court ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

But no one has to debate who will be the main attraction on day four: 10-time champion Rafael Nadal takes that honour. The 31-year-old will begin his path to an unprecedented 11^th title in the Principality.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following matches from the 2018 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters & vote for who you think will win! 
 Djokovic v Coric | Cilic v Verdasco |  Bautista Agut v Lopez

Nadal will meet Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene for the second time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The left-hander beat Bedene in straight sets in 2016 en route to his ninth Monte-Carlo title.

Read More: Nadal Beats Monfils For Ninth Monte-Carlo Title

But, since then, Bedene has shown he can compete on clay. Last year, he reached his first ATP World Tour final on clay at the Gazprom Hungarian Open in Budapest (l. to Pouille). Earlier this year, Bedene also made the Argentina Open title match in Buenos Aires (l. to Thiem).

It will be only Nadal’s eighth tour-level match of the year (6-1) and second tournament of 2018. The World No. 1 reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open before having to retire against Marin Cilic because of a right hip injury, which also forced him to withdraw from Acapulco, Indian Wells and Miami.

The Spaniard, however, made a successful return to tour-level action and to clay earlier this month, going 2-0 in singles (d. Zverev, Kohlschreiber) to help Spain beat Germany and advance to the Davis Cup World Group semi-finals.

“I love this event and the weather has been good. Being in Monte-Carlo always gives me the best feelings possible and good memories. When the time comes to play, I need to be at my best,” said Nadal, who has a 63-4 record in Monaco. “I always try to be very focused at the beginning of the tournament on what I’m doing. Every match I win is very important.”

Before Nadal, two-time champion (2013, 2015) Novak Djokovic will try to continue his scorching start to the clay-court season against Croatian Borna Coric. Djokovic needed only 57 minutes to beat countryman Dusan Lajovic on Monday, advancing 6-0, 6-1. The former World No. 1 saved all four break points against his 27-year-old compatriot.

Read More: Rafa Leads The Comeback Kings

Djokovic is again working with former coach Marian Vajda, who coached him from June 2006 to May 2017.

“He knows me better than any tennis coach I’ve worked with. He’s a friend. He’s someone I can share a lot of things with, whether it’s professional or private life. He’s always there for me. He knows me inside out. He knows what I need in order to get to the highest possible level of play. We could not ask for a better start,” Djokovic said.

Coric is coming off his best March yet. The 21-year-old made the semi-finals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Federer) and the quarter-finals at the Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Zverev).

Read More: Djokovic: ‘Inspired’ & Ready In Monte-Carlo

Coric’s elder countryman Cilic, the second seed, will wrap up play on Court Rainier III against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. The 29-year-old Croatian fell to Roger Federer in the Australian Open final but has yet to reach a quarter-final since January. Verdasco is one win away from becoming the sixth Spaniard in the Open Era to earn 500 career tour-level victories.

In other action, Kei Nishikori of Japan will meet Russian Daniil Medvedev. On Court Des Princes, three seeded players – Italian Fabio Fognini (13), Diego Schwartzman (10) and Milos Raonic (14) – will try to reach the third round in Monaco.

Watch: CIlic Describes Playing In Monte-Carlo