Defending champion Andrey Rublev faces shocking defeat vs Alexei Popyrin in 2nd round of Monte Carlo Masters

There are a lot of great matches which have been witnessed in the Monte Carlo Masters this season. This has been an absolute roller coaster ride for tennis fans as they have seen some great matches and shocking upsets already. Even though we have been missing some big players, it does not seem to make a difference in this iconic clay-season tournament. There are also some talented players that we were looking forward to in this tournament as well.

One of the players everyone was looking forward to was last season's defending champion Andrey Rublev. Rublev impressed everyone with his aggressive style of play that has gotten him to multiple grand slam quarter-finals and 15 singles titles. The Russian is currently the world number 6 in the ATP rankings. With him being last season's champion in the Monte Carlo Masters, there are certainly high expectations from the Russian.

Rublev was eliminated in 2nd round by Alexei Poppyrin

Rublev was set to play lower-seeded Australian Alexei Poppyrin in the second round of the tournament. Undoubtedly, the 26-year-old Russian was the favourite to win this encounter. However, Rublev faced the shock of his life in this match. This was one of the most shocking exits in the tournament. This was a match where Poppyrin took advantage of the biggest weakness of Rublev, where he affected many unforced errors from the defending champion playing his patient and forward game. The Aussie beat Rublev in two straight sets scoring 6-4 each.

This was one of the biggest upsets in the season after Matteo Berrettini and Stan Wawrinka lost as well. Rublev was supposed to be one of the top contenders of the tournament. It was sad to see him perform in this disappointing fashion. With these shocking results, this seems like a clay season full of surprises. All we can say is that it is still not over for Rublev as he has a lot more tournaments coming up as well.