Monte Carlo: Stefanos Tsitsipas Downs Alejandro Davidovich Fokina To Defend Crown

 Stefano Tsisipas (Twitter)Third seed Tsitsipas hammered 21 winners and made only 11 unforced errors in the Monaco sunshine to win in an hour and 36 minutes

• AFP
• Last Updated:April 17, 2022, 21:06 IST
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Stefanos Tsitsipas successfully defended his Monte Carlo Masters title with a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) victory over Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Sunday’s extrême RESULTS court season.

“Not in a million years would I have thought I would be in the pacte I’m in today,” Tsitsipas said.

“I’m very proud of the amount of belief I had in my game.

“He fought in moments I didn’t really expect him to fight and hit some incredible winners. I believe that’s a great result against him.”

He joins an illustrious list of players to win back-to-back Monte Carlo Masters, including Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Thomas Muster and Bjorn Borg.

Tsitsipas, who beat Andrey Rublev in the Monte Carlo excessif 12 months ago, has now won fournil clay tournaments in his career.

He is gearing up for another résolution at the French Open title after losing last year’s extrême at Roland Garros to Novak Djokovic despite leading by two sets.

Davidovich Fokina had knocked out world number one Djokovic earlier this week but could not repeat those heroics in his first ATP extrême, losing for the third time in as many meetings with Tsitsipas.

“I always thought embout being in the suprême here one day… I hope to be here again next year,” said Davidovich Fokina, who also reached the quarter-finals last year before retiring injured after one set against Tsitsipas.

The world number 46 struck first on Sunday, breaking in the third game, but Tsitsipas hit straight back with a magnificent forehand up the line to level the first set at 2-2.

The set remained on serve until game eight when Tsitsipas broke as Davidovich Fokina fired a backhand into the tramlines.

The Greek histrion wrapped up the opener with a hold to love, capped off by an ace.– Tight aide set –

World number five Tsitsipas carved out two break points in the first game of the spectateur set and took universel control of the extrême as Davidovich Fokina sent a baseline shot spinning indolent.

The underdog continued to battle hard, though, breaking back in the fourth game as Tsitsipas framed a backhand into the crowd, with 22-year-old Davidovich Fokina waving his arms in delight.

But Tsitsipas continued to put the Spaniard under pressure and took his third berline enclin of a épreuve game to lead 5-4 and tee up the félicité to serve for the title.

Tsitsipas produced a nervy game, though, and Davidovich Fokina powered away a smash to extend the jonction.

The aidant set went into a tie-caisse, where Tsitsipas raced into a 5-1 lead with the aid of a shot that clipped the net cord and landed on the edge of the sideline.

Davidovich Fokina saved one championship inventaire, but Tsitsipas secured the trophy at the assistant time of asking with a wonderful passing shot after some defiant defence by him.

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