The Monte Carlo Masters 1000 tournament is in full swing this week on the ATP World Tour. Here are some early storylines to emerge.

Milos Raonic reaches third straight Masters 1000 quarterfinal

Raonic joined Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer as one of only three players to make all three Masters 1000 quarterfinals or better so far this season. The Canadian set up a Monte Carlo meeting with Stanislas Wawrinka after defeating Yen-Hsun Lu and Tommy Robredo.

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez extends winning streak to eight

The 30-year-old Spaniard was the champion in Casablanca last week and has found some of his best form in years over the past two weeks. Garcia-Lopez has now extended his streak to eight matches with Monte Carlo wins over Benjamin Balleret, Alexandr Dolgopolov, and Tomas Berdych. He routed Balleret and Dolgopolov but needed three sets to rally past Berdych as the Czech faded. Djokovic is up next for Garcia-Lopez, so his streak is likely to end. But this run has come out of nowhere, and he deserves credit for it.

Novak Djokovic extends ATP Masters-level win streak to 27

Djokovic has not lost in a Masters 1000 level tournament, including the year-end World Tour Finals, since Cincinnati last summer. He is 12-0 at that level this season after winning Indian Wells and Miami. Djokovic reached the quarterfinals of Monte Carlo after losing only two games to Albert Montanes and Pablo Carreno Busta.

Dmitry Tursunov wins first career match in Monte Carlo, Rafael Nadal wins 300th match on clay

Two very different milestones were accomplished this week in Monte Carlo. Dmitry Tursunov defeated Robin Haase in three sets to win his first match in Monte Carlo at age 31, having lost his three previous attempts. Tursunov had not played Monte Carlo since 2008. Meanwhile, Nadal defeated Andreas Seppi for his 300th career win on clay, a round after ousting Teymuraz Gabashvili. The Spaniard seems to be on a collision course with Djokovic for a rematch of last year’s Monte Carlo final.

Many ATP stalwarts continue struggles

A host of traditionally solid ATP competitors are struggling right now. For most of them, it isn’t because they are poor on clay. Ernests Gulbis has suffered two consecutive opening-round exits as he lost to Julian Benneteau in Miami and Dolgopolov in Monte Carlo. Kevin Anderson has suffered the same fate with straight-sets losses to Victor Hanescu and Gael Monfils. The South African No. 1 has lost four of his last five matches.

Jerzy Janowicz has had a miserable season thus far with a sub-.500 record. He has lost six straight matches, most recently to the aging Michael Llodra in straight sets. Janowicz was not healthy to start the season and hasn’t found his feet since that slow start. He has suffered other bad losses to Alejandro Falla in Indian Wells, and the young Borna Coric in Davis Cup. Janowicz’s tennis tends to feed off of his emotions. Since his mood is so negative now, his slump might not stop soon.

Vasek Pospisil is another man who has had early injuries derail his season. The Canadian No. 2 is 0-5 since returning to the tour from a back injury and has been routed in three of those five matches, including a loss to Roberto Bautista Agut in Monte Carlo. Since Pospisil is not at his best on clay, this losing streak could extend for a few more weeks and jeopardize his top-30 ranking.

Veteran competitors Jarkko Nieminen and Gilles Simon have also struggled. Nieminen has complained about being out of shape and lost to qualifier Albert Ramos in straight sets. He also fell to Mirza Basic in Davis Cup and has lost to pedestrian players Donald Young and Blaz Kavcic this season.

Simon is a dismal 4-8 this season at the ATP main-draw level. He lost to Teymuraz Gabahsvili most recently in Monte Carlo. The top-30 Frenchman dragged himself through qualifying in Casablanca in an attempt to get more practice, but he was bounced in the first round of the main draw there. Simon has lost four straight opening-round main-draw matches.