Stefanos Tsitsipas produced a statement return to form as he defeated Casper Ruud in straight sets to lift the Monte-Carlo Masters title for the third time in a sun-drenched battle of the clay-court specialists.
The Greek carried on his impressive run in the Principality this week to outgun his Norwegian opponent and triumph 6-1 6-4 in one hour and 36 minutes.
It sees Tsitsipas add to the back-to-back titles he won at this tournament from 2021-22 and also means he joins Rafael Nadal (11), Bjorn Borg (3), Thomas Muster (3) and Ilie Nastase (3) as the only players to have claimed 3+ Monte-Carlo titles in the Open Era.
The current world No. 12 will now rise back into the top 10 in the ATP rankings on Monday following an eight-week absence thanks to a landmark 100th tournament level win on the dirt.
In a clash between two expert exponents of clay-court tennis, it was perhaps fitting that the first 1000 tournament of the European swing pitted the two men to have chalked up the most victories on the surface on the ATP Tour since 2020 against each other.
It was Tsitsipas who settled the quicker at a venue where his imperious 19-3 career record imbued clear confidence. Indeed, he broke on his third opportunity from 0-40 with a crisp cross-court forehand before hitting clutch mode to fend off three break back points and clinch a 3-1 lead from deuce.
Ruud, who had shown great character and resilience to beat world No.1 Novak Djokovic in the last four, was strangely out of sorts and a simple crosscourt volley wide was followed by two surprising errors off his trademark forehand to allow the Greek to snare the double break.
The errors continued to flow off the Norwegian’s racquet and he glanced anxiously at his team before coughing up his serve for a third time, double-faulting on a second set point to drop a one-sided opener in just 36 minutes.
Ruud, who was looking to end his four-match losing streak in finals (2023 Roland-Garros, 2023 Bastad, 2024 Los Cabos and 2024 Acapulco) desperately needed a strong start to the second set, but could not take advantage of some early break point opportunities as Tsitispas’s big first serve and venomous forehand continued to fire.
The Greek’s majestic level appeared to dip briefly, but the Norwegian continued to let him off the hook and Tsitsipas maintained the scoreboard advantage with the help of some surprise serve and volley tactics.
The alarm bells were ringing for Ruud at 3-2 down as he allowed a 40-15 lead to slip away, but he scrubbed out a break point with a delicious stun drop volley before grinding out the hold from deuce.
It almost earned him a reward on the return in an epic seventh game but despite earning three more break points from a 40-0 deficit, Tsitsipas again delivered in the big moments, knifing away a wonderful volley to make it eight out of eight break points saved.
It was this resistance coupled with a tally of 23 winners that paved the way for Tsitsipas to break again on his first match point and claim his first winner’s trophy since Los Cabos last year and the 11th ATP title of his career.