Their H2H is tied at 1-1, but Paire won their most recent meeting at Montpellier 2017 in straight sets. This first round contest between Benoit Paire and Feliciano Lopez is very evenly poised, and anyone could win this.
Benoit Paire is entering Monte Carlo on the back of a first-round exit from Marrakech. He fought back from 2-6 0-2 down and led the final set tiebreaker 5-1 before throwing it away in the end, 6-2 6-7 7-6, against Gilles Simon last week.
This is Paire’s seventh Monte Carlo appearance in the last eight seasons, and his overall record in this event stands at 6/6, including his wins in the qualifying stages.
Benoit Paire made an excellent start to the 2018 season by reaching at least the quarterfinal in three of his opening four tournaments of the season, at Pune (SF), Sydney (SF) and Montpellier (QF). But the recent four tournaments have been a disappointment as Paire faced early exits from Doha (R2), Indian Wells (R1), Miami (R3) and Marrakech (R1).
Paire, who is yet to open his account on clay this year, won 14 matches on this surface last season, including a runner-up finish at Sophia Antipolis Challenger and reaching the semifinal at Marrakech.
Feliciano Lopez suffered only his second opening round defeat of the season when he lost to Jared Donaldson in the second round (first round bye) of the Miami Open last month, and he is yet to play a match since then.
While Paire has already entered one clay tournament in 2018, Lopez will be playing his first singles match on clay this season. He suffered opening-round losses in two of his last three clay tournaments, at Gstaad 2017 (Yannick Hanfmann) and Rome Masters 2017 (David Ferrer).
However, he has already played a doubles match in Monte Carlo this week. Partnering Marc Lopez, he lost the first round match to the Colombian pair, Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, in straight sets on Sunday.
The Spaniard has appeared here 12 times in the past but could not progress beyond the second round in any of them.
Tennis Prediction: Benoit Paire
Odds: 1.80
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