Defending Champs Mektic/Pavic Face Tough Monte-Carlo Doubles Draw

Defending champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic will face a stacked draw packed with singles champions and dangerous duos as they aim to clinch their first title of the season at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters doubles tournament.

The second seeds could face reigning men’s singles titlist Stefanos Tsitsipas in their opening match, with the World No. 5 teaming with brother Petros Tsitsipas after they received a wild card into the event. The Greeks will begin against Andrey Golubev and Lorenzo Sonego.

Mektic and Pavic captured nine tour-level trophies together last season, including three Masters 1000 crowns and the Wimbledon title. They have failed to match the same heights this season, with their best result in 2022 coming in Dubai, where they advanced to the final.

Sixth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah have won two ATP Masters 1000 crowns and two Grand Slam titles together and are seeded to meet Mektic and Pavic in the quarter-finals in the bottom quarter. The Colombians open against Belgian tandem Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.

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In the top half of the draw, new World No. 1 in the ATP Doubles Rankings Joe Salisbury and partner Rajeev Ram will face Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig or Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar in their first match in Monte-Carlo.

Salisbury, who has clinched eight tour-level titles in his career, will be targeting a second Masters 1000 crown with Ram after the pair triumphed in Toronto last season. Salisbury is the third man from Great Britain to reach ATP World No. 1, joining Andy Murray (singles) and Jamie Murray (doubles).

The British-American team are seeded to meet Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the semi-finals. The third seeds have captured four Masters 1000 crowns as a team and reached the last four in Monte-Carlo in 2021. They will play wild cards Romain Arneodo and Hugo Nys or Daniel Evans and Diego Schwartzman in the second round.

Meanwhile, singles stars Alexander Zverev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Hubert Hurkacz, Jannik Sinner and Stan Wawrinka all lurk in the bottom half of the draw. Hurkacz lifted the Miami title with John Isner last week and will team with Sinner for the second time this season. The Polish-Italian pair could face fourth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicola Mahut in the second round if they can overcome Marcelo Melo and Zverev in their opener.

Herbert and Mahut clinched the title in Montpellier in February and will be aiming to lift their eighth Masters 1000 trophy together this week, while Auger-Aliassime and Wawrinka are teaming for the first time and play Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic in the first round.

Seventh seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski have enjoyed a dream start to the season, lifting three tour-level crowns since teaming for the first time in January. They are in the top half and will meet Rohan Bopanna and Jamie Murray in the first round. Briton Skupski reached the final with countryman Daniel Evans in Monte-Carlo last year.