World No.6 Alex de Minaur launches his European claycourt season in Monte-Carlo this week, a year after making the semifinals of the prestigious Masters 1000 tournament.
The fifth seed earned an opening round bye and will face world No.24 Cameron Norrie in the second round.
The left-handed Brit leads the head-to-head 3-2 after defeating De Minaur at Indian Wells last month. But the Aussie No.1 will look to continue his strong early-season form which saw him capture a maiden Rotterdam Open title in February, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets.
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The matchup comes a day after the pair teamed up on the doubles court in Monaco, where they lost to Italians Matteo Berrettini and Andrea Vavassori.
Should 'Demon' prevail, he would face either tenth-seeded Flavio Cobolli or exciting Belgian qualifier Alexander Blockx in the round of 16, while Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti or local Monegasque Valentin Vacherot could await in the final eight.
Alexei Popyrin is up against ninth-seeded Norwegian Casper Ruud in Monaco, whom he defeated in the principality on his way to a quarterfinal appearance in 2025.
The Australian world No.44 will hope to build on an impressive showing on Houston’s clay last week.
Popyrin picked up wins against a resurgent Patrick Kypson and seventh seed Alex Michelsen in Texas, before falling to Frances Tiafoe in a nail-biting third-set tiebreak in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, top Aussie women are gearing up for a do-or-die Billie Jean King Cup clash against Great Britain at Melbourne Park.
Newly minted top-60 player Talia Gibson will lead the team against the country’s sporting archrivals, alongside Kimberly Birrell, Storm Hunter, Ellen Perez and 17-year-old debutante Emerson Jones.
If Australia wins the best-of-five rubber format, the team will advance to the eight-nation Finals in September in China.
Elsewhere on clay, James Duckworth is top seed in the Mexico City Challenger, where he will face Michael Mmoh in the first round, while Tristan Schoolkate and Marc Polmans are also in the singles draw.
Chris O’Connell has a tough opening round matchup against top seed Raphael Collignon at the Monza Open Challenger in Italy.
The Wuning Open Challenger plays host to an all-Aussie first-round matchup between Li Tu and Pavle Marinkov. Philip Sekulic, off the back of claiming two ITF titles in India, is also in action, as are Ethan Cook, Blake Ellis, Kody Pearson, Moerani Bouzige, and Omar Jasicka.
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