Third seed and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka will meet No. 16 seed Pablo Cuevas for a place in the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters quarter-finals after the Swiss beat Jiri Vesely on Wednesday 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in 84 minutes for his 20th match win at the Monte-Carlo County Club.

Wawrinka opened up a 3-0 lead in the first set and despite losing his serve in the fifth game, he went on to clinch the 26-minute opener. The right-hander could not convert two break point opportunities in the second game of the second set and paid the price as Vesely broke to love for a 4-3 lead.

While Vesely, who beat Novak Djokovic in the second round last year, held on for the set, it was one-way traffic for Wawrinka in the decider. The match ended when Vesely hit his fourth double fault of the pair’s second meeting (2014 US Open).

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Elsewhere, sixth seed Dominic Thiem lost just four of his first service points (25/29) in a comprehensive 6-3, 6-2 victory over Robin Haase in 62 minutes for a third-round berth for the second straight year. Thiem goes on to face No. 10 seed David Goffin.

Pablo Carreno Busta, the No. 13 seed, who finished runner-up to Thiem in the Rio de Janeiro final earlier this year, will play second seed and 2013/15 champion Novak Djokovic after he knocked out #NextGenATP Russian Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-4 in 88 minutes.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups Wednesday at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters & vote for the players you think will win! 
Nadal v Edmund  |  Murray v Muller  |  Wawrinka v Vesely  |  Berdych v Haas

View Wednesday schedule and check back later for preview notes

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau have each won two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, including last year at the Mutua Madrid Open. As they return to clay this week at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, they share their Masters 1000 memories and reveal what makes this particular tournament so special. 

Which is your favourite Masters 1000 tournament and why?
Tecau: There’s a lot of nice ones. I enjoy Monte-Carlo a lot, I enjoy Madrid, but Indian Wells is probably the prettiest, the best surroundings, the best everything, comfortable for the players, good weather. Very good overall.

Rojer: I enjoy Monte-Carlo. It’s the first big one on the clay, obviously beautiful place and great weather as well. I enjoy being there also because when I was little I was watching this tournament growing up and I felt if you played in Monte-Carlo, then you made it. That has a lot of memories for me. 

What is your best Masters 1000 memory?
Tecau: Getting the first My Masters 1000: Jean-Julien Rojer & Horia Tecau is always memorable. Last year we had a great one in Madrid – we won it without losing a set. We were in great form. But the first title I got in Cincinnati in 2012 (with Robert Lindstedt), beating the Bryans in the semis and then Bopanna/Bhupathi in the final. That was my first big title after losing a few Grand Slam finals, so it’s the first memory that comes to mind.

Rojer: Miami probably comes to mind first because I moved there when I was 12 years old and I practised for so many years at the site where we play. To win there (with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in 2013) was everything come full circle. And then the final, I had all my family and friends there; it’s very close to Curacao. It was one of the better moments of my career.

What is your favourite off-court memory at a Masters 1000?
Rojer: I always enjoy the Monte-Carlo players’ [revue]. It’s quite a fun party. A lot of players participate in it, even though guys are like, ‘ah no, not this year,’ but then at the end everyone gets in the mood and does a few things. That’s one of the better activities at the Masters for sure.

Tecau: I enjoy that one a lot. It’s very special.

What is your dream match at a Masters 1000?
Rojer: Sorry, I’m going to have to trade you in for this one. I’d want to player with Roger [Federer]. That’s not so very thoughtful maybe, but I think he’s probably the best ever and it’d be so cool to play with him and have that experience. I’ll take any tournament. I’ll take any one of them with that guy.

Tecau: I would like to play with my idols growing up. I’d like to play with Pete Sampras against [Stefan] Edberg and Michael Stich. Those were my three idols I was following growing up. I never got a chance to hit a ball with them. I played with Roger, I played with Rafa [Nadal]. But these other guys I’ve never chance, so that would be a dream.

Have you watched a Masters 1000 match that made you say ‘Wow, that’s an amazing match’? Is there a particular one that stands out?
Tecau: Every day, man!

Rojer: Every day, but I remember [Guillermo] Coria-Nadal. They played the Rome final [in 2005]. I was very good friends with Coria and I watched him also at Monte-Carlo play classic matches, but that match against Rafa was one of the better matches of all time. 

The Mediterranean shimmers at one end of the court. Sheer rock cliffs tower behind the elegant clubhouse at the other end. In the middle is a court of clay. Enter, Rafael Nadal.

Nadal is a staggering 58-4 at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters since 2003, winning nine titles and $5.5 million from just this one stop on tour.

Can he win it again in 2017? To know what’s coming in the future, it is best to connect the clay court dots from the past. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of his successful 2016 campaign, when he dropped only two sets en route to his ninth Monte-Carlo title, identifies four key areas of dominance.

1. Break Points
Converting a break point against Nadal in Monte-Carlo is one of the toughest things to do in our sport. Period. Nadal saved 65 per cent (194/297) of his break points in the 2016 season, and that elevated to 72 per cent (34/47) in Monte-Carlo last year. The sea-level, clay-court conditions are tailor made for his high-bouncing, heavy-spin game.

The Spaniard defeated Dominic Thiem in the round of 16 here last year, saving a colossal 15 of 17 break points for the match. The key was making first serves in the important moments. There were 14 break points contested in the ad court. Nadal made 12 first serves. Three break points were played in the deuce court. Nadal made a first serve on two of them.

Overall, Thiem got a look at only three second serves out of 17 break points – and Nadal saved all three of them. These moments in time weigh heavily to the final outcome.

2. Returning
Nadal is far more lethal in Monte-Carlo returning a second serve than hitting one. Last year, when hitting his own second serve, he won only 49 per cent (53/108) of the points, but he won a mind-blowing 60 per cent (97/161) when returning his opponent’s second serves.

Nadal’s primary tactic is start well behind the baseline, let the second serve drop and crush a forehand return. He then looks to immediately improve his court position up around the baseline, where he finds superior geometry for his wicked spin.

Nadal converted a break point 56 per cent (14/25) of the time in Monte-Carlo last year receiving a second serve and 36.7 per cent (11/30) against a first serve.

3. Playing From In Front
Nadal is a nightmare to try and break when he gets a lead in his own service games.

2016 Monte-Carlo: Percentage Chance of Holding Serve

• 15/0 = 93.5% (29/31)

• 30/0 = 100% (19/19)

• 30/15 = 95.8% (23/24)

• 40/15 = 100% (20/20)

Nadal was extended to deuce only 16 times on serve in Monte-Carlo last year, losing just four of those service games. The pressure to hold is constant and adds another layer of strategic influence in the match for the Spaniard.

4. Time Is On His Side
During the 2016 season, Nadal averaged playing 47 minutes per set. That rose to 51 minutes in Monte-Carlo. Nadal uses time as a weapon on court, typically playing the match much more at his speed than that of his opponents. He certainly does not rush to the finish line.

All of the key ingredients from Nadal’s successful 2016 campaign will once again be on show this week. The game plan will be adjusted slightly for each opponent, but the road forward will still be dominated by these four key components.

Maybe Tommy Haas should reconsider this whole retirement thing.

The 39-year-old German, in the midst of his 10^th comeback, needed only 69 minutes to knock out Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

Haas, the oldest player in the draw, feasted on second serves, winning almost 80 per cent of his second-serve points and nearly 75 per cent of Paire’s. The win was Haas’ first in Monte-Carlo since 2004, when he beat Xavier Malisse. The right-hander hadn’t played at the Masters 1000 tournament since 2008.

“I think when you go out there and compete, you hope for the best, that is to try to play well and try to win,” Haas said. “Any time that happens, obviously, at this stage for me, it’s a very nice feeling, of course. I just try to build from that. Try to get stronger physically, get more used to playing matches again, points when it counts. You can do a lot of things in practice and off court, but you cannot replicate that for match play. I’m very happy to get another chance to go out there again tomorrow and keep working on my tennis game when it counts.”

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Haas improved to 2-4 on the season. He earned his first victory of the year last week in Houston by beating 19-year-old American Reilly Opelka in three sets.

Paire has been in good form. The right-hander, No. 40 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, was coming off a semi-final showing last week at the clay-court Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech. The 27 year old had won their previous FedEx ATP Head2Head match-up, after Haas had to retire because of illness down two sets to love earlier this season at the Australian Open.

“There is no better, bigger satisfaction than when you go out there, competing and winning. In this case for me, it’s a big satisfaction,” Haas said. “I’m very proud of the fact that I’m actually still out there, competing at this age. Due to setbacks and injuries I’ve had, I could have easily thrown in the towel a couple times. But I’m still out there trying to finish this game on my own terms. That’s what I’m doing. I’m proud of that.”

Haas will meet ninth seed Tomas Berdych in the second round. Their FedEx ATP Head2Head series is even at 2-all, but they haven’t played since 2012.