Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz looking to gain momentum after return to clay at Monte-Carlo Masters

The 2026 Monte-Carlo Masters, the first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season, has started and defending champion and World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz could not be more excited to get back on his most dominant surface.

"I started playing tennis on clay courts. I grew up playing on clay courts. I started playing at four and I just [didn’t] touch a hard court until eight years old and I just touched it barely,” Alcaraz told ATP Media. “That's why I got the feeling of playing the clay season and when the clay season is over you have to wait almost one year to play again. So it's a really long period of time, at least for me.”

The Spaniard has won 84.4 per cent of his matches on clay with only two other tennis players, Rafael Nadal (90.5%) and Björn Borg (86.1%), having higher percentages.

Coming into the 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters off two losses, at the Indian Wells and Miami, Alcaraz managed to turn the momentum in his favour after winning the title on clay.

Reflecting on his victory a year later, Alcaraz called the tournament “the turning point of 2025”. He went on to win the French Open and US Open titles that year, among other tournaments, and finished as the year-end No.1.

In 2026, Alcaraz comes to Monte-Carlo after a surprise loss to USA's Sebastian Korda in the third round of the Miami Open and will also look to regain his winning streak.

Alcaraz is the top seed heading into the 2026 edition of the tournament, his career's third, which takes place from 5 to 12 April. He begins his campaign in the Round of 32 on Tuesday (7 April), where he will face either Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka or Argentina's Sebastian Baez.

“I’m just really, really happy to be back here in Monte-Carlo, the first tournament of the clay season, at least for me,” Alcaraz said. “I just missed it so much to be honest. I’m going to try to enjoy as much as I can this beautiful surface, this beautiful tournament. It’s great."

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