Thirteenth seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland will face Great Britain’s Dan Evans in the Second Round of the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters in Monaco. The match is scheduled to be played on Wednesday April 14th, 2021 at 7:40am EST.
Hubert Hurkacz is currently ranked a career-high #16 in the world and has some serious momentum behind him, claiming his first Masters-1000 event at the Miami Open last week. He was outstanding during the title run, defeating five opponents that were higher ranked than he was. However, he has not traditionally enjoyed much success on clay, and will be hoping to change that this week with a strong showing. His powerful groundstrokes will be a major weapon even on the slower surface, but his movement will really limit him here. It also remains to be seen if fatigue will be a factor here for the tall Polish #1. He had a rough outing in his opening round win over Thomas Fabbiano, needing to come from a set down to defeat the world number #172. He knows he will have to be much better against a much stronger opponent in Dan Evans.
Dan Evans has been having a strong year in 2021, claiming a title earlier in the year in Adelaide. Like his opponent, he has not had much success on the clay surface, not winning a main draw match since 2017 until this event. Despite this, he was impressive in his opening round win over former Finalist Dusan Lajovic, winning in three sets. His solid and varied game could be a handful for Hurkacz, especially since he has not had much time to get accustomed to the courts. He enters this match as the underdog, but will be backing himself to win here.
This match will have only one outcome, and that is a win for Hubert Hurkacz. Now that he has shaken the rust off after his First Round win, he should be much improved here and will have too much firepower for Evans to handle. Despite clay not being his best surface, he is in the form of his life and that will make the difference here. Hubert Hurkacz to win in two close sets and advance to the Round of 16 here at the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters.