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

As the sun began to set on Tuesday evening, Grigor Dimitrov booked his place in the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters third round — mightily relieved to fight another day.

For much of his 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory, Dimitrov was constrained by the attacking instincts of Pierre-Hugues Herbert. It appeared that it wasn’t until the final game that fourth seed Dimitrov was really able to relax, open his shoulders in a love hold to complete a hard-fought win in one hour and 50 minutes.

Monte-Carlo resident Dimitrov will now await the winner of last year’s finalist and Spanish No. 15 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas or Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. Earlier in the day, Kohlschreiber needed 71 minutes to beat American Tennys Sandgren, who finished runner-up at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship (l. to Johnson) on Sunday.

World No. 82 Herbert, fresh from qualifying wins over Stefano Travaglia and Andrej Martin, lost four points on serve in the first set and broke Dimitrov in the third and ninth games. Dimitrov regrouped and broke the serve and volleying Herbert twice in the second set. After three straight service breaks in the deciding set, it was Dimitrov who seized control to improve to a 12-6 record in 2018. Herbert is 1-8 lifetime against Top 10 players in the ATP Rankings.

Elsewhere, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco moves to within one match win of a 500th career victory after the 2010 finalist saved three match points to beat Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-1 in two hours and 50 minutes.

Verdasco, who missed out on two set points at 5-2 in the first set, then saved three match points at 3-5 in the second set to deny last year’s quarter-finalist Cuevas. Verdasco, who improved to 3-2 lifetime against Cuevas in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, will play second-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic on Wednesday.

Italian qualifier Andreas Seppi also knocked out one of last week’s ATP World Tour finalists, Briton Kyle Edmund, the Grand Prix Hassan II runner-up, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in two hours and four minutes. Seppi now plays Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Did You Know?
Grigor Dimitrov has now won 10 matches at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. The Bulgarian has twice reached the quarter-finals, losing to Rafael Nadal in 2013 and Gael Monfils in 2015.

Mischa Zverev played a game of patience on a sun-kissed Tuesday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters to advance to the third round.

Clever service placement and a willingness to attack the net helped the German to a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(3) victory over seventh-seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille in two hours and five minutes. It is the first time Zverev has won back-to-back matches in 2018 (6-10 record).

Largely everything Pouille hit came off in the first set, but it wasn’t without tension as he saved break points in three service games. However, his confidence and timing evaporated in the 26-minute second set, which saw Zverev take a 5-0 lead.

Zverev was left frustrated at 2-3, 30/40 in the decider when he struck a mis-timed backhand long, but he immediately worked his way back into the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting and in the tie-break took a 4/1 lead that proved too big for Pouille to claw back.

Last year at this historic event, World No. 11 Pouille reached his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final (also 2016 Internazionali BNL d’Italia).

In another result at the Monte-Carlo County Club, Spain’s Feliciano Lopez led 3-1 in the deciding set, but endured a tense finale against Benoit Paire of France, converting his fifth match point chance to complete a 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over two hours and 22 minutes. Lopez will next meet countryman and No. 11 seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

Did You Know?
Mischa Zverev is appearing in the main draw of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters for just the second time in his career. The German lost in the first round to Jiri Vesely on his main draw debut in 2017.