Roger Federer’s quest to win a first career Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters title promises to be challenging from the start, as the three-time runner-up has been drawn into World No. 1 Novak Djokovic’s half of the draw.
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Federer, playing his first competitive tennis since the Australian Open, could face either Thomaz Bellucci or Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in his second-round match (after bye), and would face 14th-seeded Roberto-Bautista Agut in the third round and 8th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals if the seeds hold.
Two-time champion Novak Djokovic begins his road to Roland Garros with a second-round match against either Jiri Vesely or Teymuraz Gabashvili. He would face 13th-seeded Gael Monfils in the third round and either 11th-seeded David Goffin or 8th-seeded David Ferrer in the quarterfinals if the seeds hold.
In the lower half of the draw 5th-seeded Rafael Nadal could face either Lukas Rosol or Aljaz Bedene in the second round before potentially meeting 12th-seeded Dominic Thiem in the third round. Nadal was defeated by Thiem in the Buenos Aires semifinal earlier this season.
The eight-time Monte-Carlo champion is slated to meet fourth-seeded and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in the quarterfinals if the seeds hold.
Nadal won 46 consecutive matches at Monte-Carlo before losing the 2013 final to Djokovic. Since then he has failed to reach the title match in the last two years.
2nd-seeded Andy Murray will face Guido Pella or a qualifier in the first round and will face 16th-seeded Benoit Paire in the third round and either 10th-seeded Milos Raonic or 6th-seeded Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals if the seeds hold.
A pair of enticing first-round matchups feature Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev, two of the three highest ranked 18-year-olds on the ATP Tour, and Borna Coric vs. Philipp Kolschreiber, with the winner going on to face Wawrinka in the second round.