Wednesday, the middle of the day, the Monte-Carlo Masters had not even reached its halfway point, and there were already no Russian players left in the tournament. By their own lofty standards, the Medvedev–Rublev–Khachanov trio failed badly at the first clay-court 1000 event, not even making it to the third round.

Let’s start with Daniil: for the second Masters in a row, he was handed a bagel by his opponent. But here, for the first time in his career, Medvedev lost with two zeroes on the scoreboard. Even Matteo Berrettini, the man who advanced, was shocked — and this win allowed him to keep his place in the top 100 and secure direct entry into the Roland Garros main draw. Daniil knows how to surprise: from beating Alcaraz in Indian Wells to collapsing in Monte-Carlo. It seemed Medvedev wanted to win his opening clay-court match of the season with a similar tactical approach to the one he used in that California semi-final: playing fast, stepping into the court and attacking quickly. But clay is, above all, about patience — and on Wednesday, the Russian’s patience snapped almost immediately. After eight games, his racket had been smashed to pieces.

In 49 minutes, Daniil never managed to get a feel for the ball, which kept flying off his racket into astronomical misses. There were barely any long rallies, and his net approaches and drop shots felt unjustified. Most importantly, there was no stability on serve: a catastrophic 36% of first serves could hardly have promised any other result. Medvedev and clay have opened a new chapter in their complicated relationship, but it is hard to imagine it getting worse than it did at this tournament.

Andrey Rublev lost to Zizou Bergs 4:6, 1:6, while Karen Khachanov failed to get past Arthur Rinderknech, 5:7, 2:6. In both cases, the feeling was that they lacked an emotional spark. Yes, one could bring up Andrey’s neck problems in the match against Borges, or the wild crowd support for the Frenchman against Karen, but it is unlikely that the causes of the defeats lie there. Arthur, as usual, served extremely well, while Zizou, judging by the way he moved around the court, could easily be called the Flying Belgian. But that emotional charge mentioned above might well have come from the players’ boxes through Marat Safin and Evgeny Donskoy. Unfortunately, neither of them was at this tournament — probably because of how responsibilities are divided inside the teams, with different coaches covering different cities.

Monte-Carlo left an unpleasant aftertaste for the Russian players, but there is still a month and a half to set things right before Roland Garros. Khachanov and Rublev have entered Barcelona. It will be interesting to see whether Medvedev asks for a wild card into that 500-level event. In Monaco, meanwhile, the intrigue for the rest of the week is whether anyone can prevent the season’s first official meeting between Sinner and Alcaraz — a match that, quietly but unmistakably, could become a battle for the top of the rankings.