The men’s draw this year was bound to revolve around two men. The King of Clay returned to the grand slams for the first time since being unceremoniously dumped out of Wimbledon while the world. No.1 renews his bid at the one major that eludes him. However due to Rafael Nadal’s long time out, the two favourites would not automatically fall in opposite sections and was undoubtedly the most anticipated outcome of today’s draw. As it turned out, Rafa was drawn in Djokovic’s half leaving us awaiting a mouthwatering clash in the semifinal.

This has also given the other contenders a new lease of life especially with the withdrawal of Murray. Roger Federer is the biggest beneficiary as his section is clear of fellow Big Four members giving him a real shot at his 6^th final on the red clay. The main nearly-men waiting to make their breakthroughs include the ever present Ferrer, the dangerous Berdych and the charismatic Tsonga while waiting in the wings are outsiders Jerzy Janowicz and Benoit Paire among others. Let’s then delve into the draw to glean what we can about how things might just pan out over the next 15 days at Roland Garros

Day 5 of the 2013 Italian Open was witness to two top 10 upsets. In the first of those, France’s Benoit Paire ousted 7th seed Juan Martin Del Potro in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(3). 9th seed Richard Gasquet put up more off a fight before he was shown the door by up and comer Jerzy Janowicz who rallied for a 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 victory.

The other top 10 matches scheduled for the day had more or less predictable results. The top two seeds in Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer sailed through their 3rd round encounters to progress quite comfortably to the last eight while 5th seed David Ferrer was given a walkover as a result of Phillip Kohschreiber’s withdrawal due to dizziness. World no. 6 Tomas Berdych continued his dominance over South Africa’s Kevin Anderson with a 7-5, 6-2 victory, his fourth 2013 defeat of the big serving Anderson .

Tuesday was a day packed with tennis with both the men’s 1st and 2nd round match ups taking place on the same day. The morning session was witness to the opening round matches that saw 13th seed Tommy Haas, 15th seed Stanislas Wawrinka and giant killers Lukas Rosol and Horacio Zeballos in action. Wawrinka was the sole survivor of that quartet, but only after fighting back from a set deficit against qualifier Carlos Berlocq 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Later in the day, World no 1 Novak Djokovic and 2nd seed Roger Federer took to the courts, returning to the thick of it after early exits in Madrid. Both looked to be confident and in sublime touch in their straight set defeats of Albert Montanes and Potito Starace, respectively. Joining them on Thursday in round 3 will be 6th seed Tomas Berdych, 7th seed Juan Martin Del Potro and 9th seed Richard Gasquet who came through comfortably in their 2nd round matches.

With world no. 1 Novak Djokovic and defending champion Rafael Nadal squaring off in yet another final, the stage was set for a crackerjack of a tennis match. The same questions were on everyone’s mind. Would Nadal continue his astonishing 46 match winning streak in Monte Carlo or would the top seed be finally able to win the title and upstage the Spaniard.

After a battle of an hour and 52 minutes it was the latter that proved to be true as the two time runner-up outplayed the defending champion for most of the match to produce one of the most important wins of his career and win his first Monte Carlo Masters title 6-2, 7-6(1).

In a repeat of the 2009 and 2012 Monte Carlo Masters finals, World no.1 Novak Djokovic and 8 time champion Rafael Nadal will battle it out for the title in the 2013 edition of the tournament.  Third seeded Nadal faced off against 6th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first of the day’s semifinals and narrowly avoided a third set in his 6-3, 7-6(3) victory. On the other hand, the Serb overcame first time ATP Masters 1000 semifinalist Fabio Fognini in just 52 minutes 6-2, 6-1.

With Tsonga being 3-7 in head to head against Nadal and never having won against a top 5 player on clay, the Spaniard looked to be the favourite to win the match.  The Frenchman definitely had this lopsided record at the back of his mind, as he came to court with a whole new strategy to counter the 8 time champion.

Day 5 of the 2013 Monte Carlo Masters got off to a great start with 6 terrific sets of tennis. In the first of those two matches, 6th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga battled it out against 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka before pulling through in three sets 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the next encounter, 8 time defending champion Rafael Nadal was pushed to the limit by 21 year old Grigor Dimitrov as the Spaniard lost his first set in the principality since 2011 eventually winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to progress into the semi-finals.

The other two of the day’s encounters were more one sided with top seed Novak Djokovic finally finding form for a straight set victory over Finland’s Jarko Nieminen and Italy’s Fabio Fognini triumphing against 7th seed Richard Gasquet 7-6(0), 6-2.

The men at the top of the rankings charts had a good day on court on day 3 of the 2013 Monte Carlo Masters with world no.1 Novak Djokovic, world no.2 Andy Murray and 8 time consecutive winner Rafael Nadal leading the way into round 3 of the tournament.  Accompanying them into that round are 4th seed Tomas Berdych, 9th seed Marin Cilic and 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, who all came through in comfortable straight set encounters.

Nadal was the first of the top players to take to the court on Wednesday. The Spaniard opened his campaign for a record 9th title at Monte Carlo by dominating Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-1, 6-2 needing just over an hour for his 43rd consecutive victory at the tournament. The 3rd seed began strongly and raced to a 4-0 lead before Matosevic held serve for 1-4 but that proved no deterrence for Nadal as he wrapped up the set for a 1-0 lead.