Three-time defending champion Rafa Nadal leads the first clay ATP Masters Series tournament of the year. The 21-year-old Spaniard, who has won the tittle the last two years, makes his season debut on clay againt Mario Ancic.

Super Mario, whose career was undermined by crippling glandular fever, moved into the Monte Carlo Masters second round where he will face a challenge just as daunting in the shape of claycourt specialist Rafal Nadal.

Croatian Ancic, a former top 10 player and Davis Cup winner, was sidelined for six months in 2007 with mononucleosis, the same ailment which struck down world No.1 Roger Federer earlier this year. But the 24-year-old, a Monaco resident, justified his wildcard award by easing past Czech qualifier Ivo Minar 6-3, 6-4 to set-up a second round meeting with Rafa, the triple champion here whose wins in 2005, 2006 and 2007 prefaced three French Open triumphs.

Ancic, now ranked 55 in the world, has won one of three career meetings with the Spanish left-hander, but the last came in 2004. Rafa, the world No.2, will be making his 2008 claycourt bow with a formidable record of 107 wins from 110 matches on his favourite surface in the last three years. It's a run which has also yielded 17 claycourt titles.

Djokovic, making his season debut on clay, will play the winner of former two-time champion Gustavo Kuerten-Ivan Ljubicic (Kuerten leads Ljubicic 5-1) in his opening round match. Djokovic could meet No. 14 seed Andy Murray (vs. Feliciano Lopez) in the third round. Gasquet takes on the Andreas Seppi-Fabrice Santoro winner and the first seed he could play is No. 10 Carlos Moya (vs. Sam Querrey), the 1998 champion and '02 runner-up.

Moya has a 26-11 career record in Monte Carlo but he's looking to break a three-match first round losing streak since reaching the semifinals in 2004. In the bottom half of the draw (third section), Russians Nikolay Davydenko (No. 4) and Mikhail Youzhny (No. 8) are the highest seeds. Davydenko will open against the Nicolas Kiefer-Juan Ignacio Chela winner and could meet No. 16 and last year's quarterfinalist Philipp Kohlschreiber (vs. Jose Acasuso) in the third round.

Youzhny will face either countryman Igor Andreev or Dmitry Tursunov in his opening round match and possibly No. 11 Juan Monaco or unseeded Nicolas Almagro in the third round. In the last section, No. 2 Rafa Rafa could meet two countrymen in the later rounds. No. 13 seed and former two-time champion Juan Carlos Ferrero (Rafa leads 5-1) is a possible third round opponent and No. 5 David Ferrer (Rafa leads 4-3, including 3-1 on clay), a three-time Monte Carlo quarterfinalist, in the quarters.