Stefanos Tsitsipas Wins Third Monte-Carlos Masters

 

Stefanos Tsitsipas is the Monte-Carlos champion for the third-time in his career and he achieved that by defeating Casper Ruud through two-set 6-1 6-4 in the final. 

Ruud reached the final on the backdrop of his defeat of top-seeded player, Novak Djokovic in the semis, but could not produce the same performance against Tsitsipas - the Greek was not an easy contender for Ruud to beat, rather he was neatly out-performed. 

The champion, Tsitsipas dictated the final from the first set. He was on top of his game taking two breaks by 4-1 and later won the set as the Norwegian double faulted at 5-1. Tsitsipas later witnessed resilience from Ruud in the decider, rallied from 15/40 of 2-3 win his third break to level and wrapped up the match on a break for a championship point that completed his hat-trick in Monte-Carlo. 

En route the final, Tsitsipas only dropped a set against Italian veteran Jannik Sinner, whom he defeated in the semis. Amongst top players he defeated was German ace Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov.

"This is an unbelievable win for me," said Tsitsipas. "Capturing that win today was nerve-wracking. I really wanted this trinity." 

He will join the list of players who have won three or more title in Monte-Carlo and leading amongst them is Rafael Nadal with eleven trophies. The Spaniard, Rafa pulled out of the tournament over his reasons.