Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas was comfortable in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000. This Sunday he defeated Spanish Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in straight sets 6-3 and 7-6 (3) after an hour and 36 minutes of play and retained the title he won. he in 2021 in the first major tournament of the tour clay court leading. to Roland Garros.

Tsitsipas, who had just won an incredible match against Diego Schwartzman in the quarterfinals and eliminated German Alexander Zverev in the semis, ended the Spaniard’s expectations to add his second trophy in the Masters 1000 category and the eighth overall. in his career.

Tsitsipas, who received the trophy from Prince Albert, became the first player from Rafael Nadal in 2018 to win two consecutive titles in the tournament played at the Principality.

The Greek was thus converted, at 23 years old, into the sixth player to retain his title in the first major clay tournament of the season, along with the Romanian Ilie Nastase (1971-1973), the Swedish Björn Borg (1979 -1980). ), the Austrian Thomas Muster (1995-1996), and the Spaniards Juan Carlos Ferrero (2002-2003) and Rafael Nadal (2005-2012 and 2016-2018).

Davidovich’s good performance despite the defeat rewarded him with a noticeable increase in the ATP ranking. Andalusian, butcher in the second round of Serbian Novak Djokovic, number one on the planet, will lift to 19th place and this Monday he will emerge at 27th place in the world rankings, the best so far in his professionalism .

“Sometimes I’m hesitant but I’m proud of how I stayed in the fight and did everything I could to win,” Tsitsipas said once he finished the victory in the second-set tiebreak.

And he also gave words of praise and recognition for the Spaniards. “Davidovich is a great player and I’m sure he’ll get the same results as here in the next few tournaments. He fought as hard as possible. But I was able to minimize his resources and achieve success . “

The battle

After an equal start (3-3), Tsitsipas chained five straight games to win the first set (6-3) and get a favorable 2-0 in the second.

Taking advantage of many unforced mistakes from Davidovich, who was obviously lacking in energy, Tsitsipas was on the right track to quickly pick up the tournament.

However, when the Greek seemed to be just waiting for his rival to make a mistake, he lost concentration and the Spaniard, who was publicly supported, was able to break his rival’s serve and tied it at 2-2 in the second set.

The Greek, however, scored another break point in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead on serve. Seems like settled history. For everyone, except his rival, who was able to come back again and draw 5-5.

The tie break was dominated by Greek and, as a symbol, two tennis players were lying in the brick dust of Monte Carlo, when the ball was still rolling on the court: Davidovich as he went for the ball on his last point and Tsitsipas after seeing his opponent’s ball come out and he won.

Last year, a few weeks after winning his first Masters 1,000 in Monte Carlo, Tsitsipas, who won the first two sets against Novak Djokovic in the Roland-Garros final, lost against the Serbian.