“It’s incredible to taste victory again… There’s a god up there!” : Stefanos Tsitsipas, 12th in the world, won the Monte-Carlo Masters 1000 for the third time, beating Norwegian Casper Ruud (10th) 6-1, 6-4 in the final on Sunday. The 25-year-old Greek won his first Masters 1000 on this same Rainier III court in 2021, before achieving the double in 2022. “I really wanted this hat-trick,” he assured, extremely happy to have played “merciless” tennis. He thus became the fifth player in the Open era (since 1968) to register his name on the tournament list at least three times, after Ilie Nastase (3), Björn Borg (3), Thomas Muster (3) and Rafael Nadal (11).
Eleventh title of his career
Double finalist in Grand Slam (Roland-Garros 2021 and Australian Open 2023), Tsitspas won the 11th title of his career on Sunday, his first of the season, at the end of a very convincing journey since he eliminated three players of the World Top 10: Alexander Zverev (5th) in the round of 16, Jannik Sinner (2nd) in the semi and therefore Ruud in the final. He had not beaten a player as highly ranked as Sinner on clay since his victory against Daniil Medvedev (2nd) at Roland-Garros in 2021. And he had not played a Masters 1000 final on this surface since Rome in 2022.
With this first title since Los Cabos in 2023, he will return to the world Top 10 on Monday after eight weeks of absence: he will move up to 7th place in the ATP on Monday thanks to this 100th victory on clay. “You love this tournament and you played really well all week. You deserve to get back into the Top 10,” Ruud told him at the trophy ceremony.
Tsitsipas more flamboyant
Former world No.2, the Norwegian will move up to 6th place in the ATP rankings on Monday, his best ranking since September 2023. He fails for the second time in the Masters 1000 final after Miami (2022). Sunday, in the first set, like their outfits, black for Ruud, red for Tsitsipas, the Greek developed a more flamboyant game and stormed the net (including, on occasion, on his second service ball) when the Norwegian preferred powerful rallies from the baseline.
This risky game made Tsitsipas commit a few unforced errors (18 in total for 30 winning shots), but above all allowed him to take the match in hand with a quick break to lead 2-1 then confirm 3-1, not without having saved three break points. He was no longer worried about the set on his serve. On the contrary, under incessant pressure from his opponent, Ruud immediately conceded the double break. He then tried to play with more aggression – and therefore risk – and even tried volleying (six won out of ten climbs), but ended up conceding another break and the set on a double fault.
At 3-3 in the second set, Ruud seemed able to turn the match around: trailing 40/0 on Tsitsipas’ service, the Norwegian came back to tie and created three break points. But each time, the Greek was very solid and very enterprising, erasing these balls with three winning shots (a forehand and two volleys). He finally retained his serve on his sixth game point. And Tsitsipas concluded the match by taking his opponent’s serve one last time in the final game, with a magnificent forehand winner down the line after a long rally.