Stephanos Tsitsipas was questioned in the first months of the season. Because of the elbow surgery at the end of last year, no one knew what to expect from him, but the semifinals at the Australian Open showed that the Greek was fine.

Then, however, his results began to raise doubts. Not that they were bad, but they paled in the overall context of the tour. In Rotterdam Felix Auger-Allassim took his first title, a breakthrough. At Indian Wells, Taylor Fritz shined and beat Nadal in his only defeat of the season. In Miami, the young genius Carlos Alcaraz took his first big title. All of these victories were especially interesting to watch with live tennis odds. Nowadays, a huge number of people follow tennis tournaments because of the opportunity to watch matches with more excitement, and live odds certainly provide that opportunity.

Tsitsipas got lost in those stories, and he might have given the impression that he wasn’t doing well. Four consecutive losses to top-20 players only strengthened that impression.

But then the tour moved to the clay, and Tsitsipas shined again. At the Masters in Monte Carlo, he was champion again, defeating on the way #16 Schwartzman (going 0-4 in the deciding set), #3 Zverev, and in the final Alejandro Davidovich-Fokin (6-3, 7-6).

Stefanos defended last year’s title and reminded that on the clay he is straight up in the elite-tier. Because he took the trophy being quite far from his peak – he is not very stable yet (both in play and emotion), his serve is sometimes off, his forehand occasionally fails a lot, his backhand too. All in all, everything can be improved.

But Tsitsipas in Monte Carlo showed an essential champion skill – finding solutions when it was needed the most.

For example, Davidovic-Fokina began to attack much better in the second half of the final, and Tsitsipas responded by gradually turning on unrealistic defense and stealing some crucial points at the end. ADF caught the game on the receiving end – Tsitsipas responded by stepping up his serve accuracy and putting four in a row at the key moment (from 30:30 when the score was 5-6 and at the beginning of the tie-break). Before that, though, his problem had been that his serves were too soft.

This win is really important not only in the context of Tsitsipas’ career, but also in the overall story of the tour. Because:

– Only five players had defended the title in Monte Carlo before Tsitsipas. Only Rafael Nadal, who won it eight times in a row once and then three more times, has managed to do so.

– If you put out the giants – Federer, Nadal and Djokovic – only Andy Murray was successful at defending the title at the Masters. Stefanos’ more titled colleagues Medvedev and Zverev did not do so either.

As a result, Tsitsipas is now the leader of the tour in winning matches (22), and only behind the Australian Open champion Nadal in points. If this is stagnation, it’s happening at the highest level.

***

Many are already worried about the Greek’s chances at Roland Garros – Nadal is injured, Djokovic is out of shape, and Tsitsipas is nominally stronger than anyone else on the clay court. But Stephanos himself is more pragmatic:

“I’m not thinking about Roland Garros yet, there are still a lot of Masters until then. So I’m concentrating on other tournaments”.

Next up for him is Barcelona, where he missed a match point in the final last year.

Shares:

Drop a Reply