Daniil Medvedev continued his excellent start to the season with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Italian Lorenzo Sonego at the the Monte Carlo Masters on Wednesday.
Medvedev has won four hardcourt titles this year, winning 25 of his past 26 matches, and extended his good run on a surface that he has not previously enjoyed much success on.
The Russian moved into an early 3-0 lead and was relentless from the baseline to seal an 89-minute victory.
"I always struggle on clay," said third seed Medvedev. "I've had some good matches where I still struggled. There's no rhythm on clay, every bounce is a bad bounce and even when it's good you're expecting a bad bounce.
"But I managed to play good against a very strong player."
“It’s completely different on clay, but confidence is confidence,” Medvedev added. “It’s about winning matches, because it is always two players that play, and one is going to win. I hope to bring this confidence even further.”
Alexander Zverev continued to rebuild his confidence on clay with a 6-4, 6-4 victory against Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round.
The German 13th seed, who suffered a serious ankle injury in the French Open semi-final against Rafael Nadal last year, won his second match in as many days.
Zverev broke for 3-2 in the opening set and held serve to take the lead in the contest, before breaking again in the fifth game of the second set.
Bautista Agut, however, levelled at 3-3, only for Zverev to take the decisive break in the following game.
Fourth-seeded Casper Ruud extended his winning streak on clay to nine matches to reach the third round in Monte Carlo.
The 2022 French Open runner-up was made to work hard by Botic van de Zandschulp in his opening match at the Country Club before winning 7-5, 7-6 (7-1).
Ruud has won the past two clay events he has played, in Gstaad last July and in Estoril last week.
“It is never easy to start at a new tournament and against a player I have lost to before,” said Ruud, who fell to his Dutch opponent in Miami last month. "Sometimes it is a little tricky playing someone you recently lost to, like ‘Not again’, but in this case I was a bit happy because I felt like I had some unfinished business from the Miami match.”
Ruud, who saved one set point in the second set, will next be up against Jan-Lennard Struff, who defeated 14th-seeded Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-2.
After struggling for consistency at the start of the year, Ruud has found his confidence back on his favoured surface.
"It felt great last week in Estoril,” he said. “It felt very comfortable. Today was at times a very good match, but at times a little rusty. There are a lot of positives to build on.”
Karen Khachanov also went through with a 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 win over Ilya Ivashka while eighth seed Taylor Fritz overcame Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (12-10), 6-2.
