Karen Khachanov is on a three-match losing streak and his underwhelming hard-court season in North America has left him short on confidence ahead of his first clay-court match of 2022. Khachanov played very decent tennis in Australia, highlighted by a run to the finals of Adelaide in the opening week of the season. The 24-year-old retains Top 10 ambitions for the current season and his steady climb in the rankings is taking shape. Should Khachanov make a deep run at this week’s Monte-Carlo Masters, he is likely to crack the Top 20. But his task won’t be easy as he squares off against Diego Schwartzman.

Diego Schwartzman has already accumulated sufficient playing time on the clay this season and will be in good shape when he arrives at the Monte-Carlo Masters. Schwartzman, a former quarterfinalist at the Principality, made back-to-back finals on the South American Golden Swing, in Buenos Aires and Rio respectively, finishing on the losing side to Casper Ruud and Carlos Alcaraz. Despite stumbling at the final hurdle, Schwartzman did enough to pick up double-digit wins for the current campaign. The 29-year-old will be looking to improve on his second-round exits at his last three trips in Monte Carlo.

Karen Khachanov and Diego Schwartzman are currently tied at 2-2 in their head-to-head. Khachanov claimed a big win over the Argentinean in their last match at the Tokyo Olympics, en route to winning the silver medal. Schwartzman, however, will find extra motivation to avenge that loss. And he is going to have the upper hand in baseline rallies on the slow courts of Monte-Carlo Masters.