Novak Djokovic opened his clay-court season with a win on Wednesday at the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters. Next, the World No. 1 will face Lorenzo Musetti in an upcoming match at the event. Djokovic, in what will be a round-of-sixteen match in the draw, is priced at -500 (bet365) to beat Musetti. Those are not the shortest odds you will see on the Serb. Although he was sharp in his first clay-court match of 2024, maybe many are still skeptical of Djokovic after a slow start to the season by his standards. My Djokovic vs Musetti prediction is that the latter player will win he match on game handicaps.
Schedule of Play: Right-click/Open in the New Tab to check match times: subject to change
Novak Djokovic vs Lorenzo Musetti Head-to-Head Series
The Djokovic vs Musetti h2h is 3-1 in favor of the World No. 1. Musetti won their last match, which was played almost a year ago to the day. The Italian beat Djokovic in a three-set match at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters. The final set went to 6-4 in favor of Musetti. They also played a match on clay at the 2021 French Open. Musetti won the first two sets in a tiebreaker but retired in the 5th set after losing 16 of the 17 games that followed.
The Draw: Right-click/Open the link in a new tab for the draw for the 2024 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters
Novak Djokovic's Recent Matches and Results
Djokovic beat Roman Safiullin 6-1, 6-2 in the second round at Monte Carlo. Otherwise, Djokovic has been idle since March 11th. That was when he lost to Luca Nardi in the Indian Wells Masters. Last year, Djokovic entered four clay-court tournaments. The only significant highlight for him was winning the French Open. He was otherwise disappointing on the dirt in 2024, however, winning the clay-court Grand Slam was more than redeeming for him.
Novak Djokovic
Serving ability: No. 11/clay/last 52 weeks
Return-of-serve ability: No. 4/clay/last 52 weeks
Lorenzo Musetti's Recent Matches and Results
Musetti is 4-0 on sets played so far in the tournament through Taylor Fritz and Arthur Fils. His last match was moderately competitive.
Last week, Musetti was in Portugal at the ATP Estoril event where he lost his first match to Nuno Borges. The Italian has done little with his season so far with the wins against Fritz and Fils amounting to significant highlights for him in 2024. On year-to-date rankings, Musetti is now up to 45th in the world after a slow to the 2024 ATP season.
Djokovic vs Musetti Prediction: Musetti +4.5
The head-to-head series is very intriguing because Musetti beat Djokovic at the same venue a year ago. Also, their only other match was super close in the opening sets with Musetti winning two tiebreakers at the 2021 French Open. I think the bets should be in favor of Musetti in this contest. Bettors should take Musetti on the game handicaps at +4.5 and EVEN odds (bet365).
Musetti vs Djokovic prediction: Draw at the 2024 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters
The winner of this match will probably face Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals. However, he has a tricky match against Alexei Popyrin coming up. Of course, if Djokovic continues to play like he did in the second round, then it would be just the late-rounders that would be likely to stop him.
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