If Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have a consistent problem, it is that they mostly stay so far ahead of the rest of the ATP field that when they beat opponents, which they almost always do, the matches don't take too long. Tennis fans want to see Sinner and Alcaraz win, sure, but we want to enjoy the moment a bit longer.
That didn't happen in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Sinner had the earlier match of the two and simply decimated poor Ugo Humbert 6-3, 6-0. The Italian, as he often does, played an efficient brand of the sport with nine winners and eight unforced errors.
Humbert, on the other hand, was trying so hard to get any points off Sinner that the Frenchman was often beating himself. He finished with six winners, but 21 unforced errors. He chose to play baseline to baseline tennis, and the strategy was a costly one.
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz win their second-round matches at the 2026 Monte Carlo Masters
He doesn't have the power to offset Sinner's elite speed, and the match was an ugly one from the beginning. The second set was far worse. He had zero winners and won only six points the entire set.
The two-seed will next face the winner of the Francisco Cerundolo and Tomas Machac match. Should Cerundolo win that, he could give Sinner a tricky opponent as the Argentine is quite good on clay.
Carlos Alcaraz's match against overwhelmed Sebastian Baez was just as easy, and for a lot of the same reasons. The Spaniard's deft of touch and brutal power was too much for the Argentinian to have a good answer for. Like Humbert versus Sinner, Baez often tried to hit bigger than he is consistently capable of and had too many unforced errors.
The Argentinian also won just two points off the Spaniard's first serve, and Alcaraz landed that serve 85 percent of the time. The only real hope for Baez is that he would face an Alcaraz who sometimes isn't in peak form against players who don't have much of a chance of pushing him. Baez didn't get that Alcaraz, however.
After taking the first set 6-1, Alcaraz was racing toward getting the match done in under an hour. That is when Baez mounted a bit of a comeback down 1-4 in the second set, and got a hold and a break, and the set was suddenly back on serve.
Baez's happiness wouldn't last long, though. Alcaraz immediately got the break back and then held to take set two 6-3. The match finished about an hour and ten minutes.
Carlos Alcaraz will next face either Tomas Martin Etcheverry or the winner of the Terence Atmane and Ethan Quinn match. No matter who the top-seed plays, he will rightfully be the heavy favorite. After all, one reason Alcaraz is at the Monte Carlo Masters is to defend the title he won in 2025.