Reuters
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ATP Masters 1000 – Monte Carlo Masters
ATP Masters 1000 – Monte Carlo Masters
ATP Masters 1000 – Monte Carlo Masters
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Tennis – ATP Masters 1000 – Monte Carlo Masters – Monte Carlo Country Club, Roquebrune Cap Martin, France – April 16, 2022 Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas celebrates his semi-final victory against Germany’s Alexander Zverev.
Monte Carlo, April 17 (BNA): Defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas showed no signs of fatigue after the marathon battle on Friday, as he beat German Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-2 to reach the Monte Carlo Masters final.
Tsitsipas and Zverev survived a three-hour battle on Friday to reach the last four, but it was the Greek third seed who appeared to recover quickly as he tormented the slow Zverev with a string of primary winners, Reuters reported.
Tsitsipas, who has now won all three of his claycourt matches against Zverev, will face a surprise finalist Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Sunday’s showdown.
The Spaniard, who will play his first singles final on the ATP tour, beat Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-7 (2) 6-3 in a swing match earlier on Saturday.
However, all eyes were on Tsitsipas’ match against Zverev.
Tsitsipas, last year’s French Open runner-up, had twice led in the opening set but allowed Zverev to steal his serve again in the third and ninth games.
In the end the Greek stamped the group on sending the German with a perfect chip.
Tsitsipas dominated the second set from the baseline and took a decisive break to lead 4-2 when Zverev’s long forehand sailed.
He won the next game to love before breaking again with a powerful passing shot to wrap up the match in just 75 minutes.
“It was good,” Tsitsipas said.
“I don’t know if the long match gave me some rhythm, but I was able to play tennis really well today. I’m happy with the level I was able to do and I came up with some good ideas on the court.”
The first half was tighter.
Davidovich Fokina, whose best performance was two titles in a challenge in 2019, won five of his six break points, while Dimitrov failed to capitalize on seven of his 10 chances in last year’s quarter-final rematch in the principality.
A double fault from Dimitrov gave 22-year-old Davidovich Fokina the first half of the match in the third game and the Spaniard kept his serve to keep the first set.
The Bulgarian was more precise at the start of the second set to open the 2-0 lead but quickly lost focus again as his opponent won four games in a row to move closer to a winning streak.
Serving for the match with a score of 5-3, he collapsed under pressure and allowed Dimitrov to return to the match, with the Bulgarian easily winning in the tiebreak.
The break was another nerve test as Dimitrov collapsed after winning his first two matches, losing five games in a row to put Davidovich Fokina on the brink of victory once again.
This time, the Spaniard maintained his composure and won on the second match point.