Stefanos Tsitsipas Completes Completes The Hat-Trick As He Secures A Third Title At Monte Carlo Masters!
Stefanos Tsitsipas is back in the winners' circle as he secures a third Monte-Carlo Masters title against Casper Ruud in straight sets. He dispatched Ruud in just an hour and 36 minutes, winning 6-1, 6-4. It was a tremendous win after an injury-plagued 2023 season and terrible start to his 2024 season. This also marks the 11th tour-level title for the Greek.
The match was straightforward for Tsitsipas in the first set as he broke the Norwegian immediately in the first game. For the remainder of the first set Ruud was unable to settle and find his footing. In the second set, things got slightly complicated when Ruud raised his level; however, he was unable to take advantage of the breakpoint chances he had in a marathon 13-minute game at 3-3. Then Tsitsipas was able to break and secure the title as Ruud served at 4-5.
Once again, nightmare for Ruud as he failed to secure a title on a bigger stage. All 10 of his tour-level titles came from ATP250 events and he had yet to secure a breakthrough despite having made finals at higher level events on seven different occasions. Nevertheless, a good performance by Ruud as he secured his first win against world no. 1 Novak Djokovic en-route the finals. He will rise back up to world no. 6 as the rankings refresh.
The former world no. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas is set to return to the top-10 after securing the win at Monte-Carlo. He will move back up to world no. 7 after having dropped out of the top-10 last month. Now, with his return to the top rankings, there will be two single-handed backhand players (Tsitsipas 7, Dimitrov 10) in the Top-10. Great performance from the Greek as he went into the match fearless and the aggression paid off, and he will be looking to extend the form into the remainder of the season, especially on clay.