|
On Easter Sunday, Stefanos Tsitsipas managed to put all his eggs in one basket and in doing so won the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters for the second consecutive year. That listed his name alongside Rafa Nadal, Bjorn Borg, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Thomas Muster and Ilie Nastase as the only ones to achieve such a feat in the Open era. Nadal was the last to do it in 2018.
Interestingly all those before Tsitsipas went on to win the French Open. Last year's finalist at Roland Garros, Tsitsipas said smiling: "It's very encouraging, absolutely. I really want to improve the stat and make it even better."
It took Tsitsipas one hour 36 minutes to defeat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 7-6 and end the amazing run the 22-year-old Spaniard had enjoyed at the Monte Carlo Country Club.
"It's a great feeling, because we had the crowd this year involved (and) it was a bit more lively than last year," Tsitsipas said. "I think it's double more special in a lot of ways, starting from of course much more nerve-racking, to have people involved, you have the fans yelling and chanting, but it was a great way to top it off with lots of fighting in the end, you know.
"Not so much going for clean winners or for too much beautiful tennis but trying to put in the hard work in every single point and go over the limits, as I like to say.
"In the back of my head, you know, I'm always trying to bring the best I can from clay and adjust accordingly to the other surfaces. I really want to be doing well on hard and grass this year, because I feel like I can really get a lot of points there.
"If I'm able to win matches with the same consistency I do on this surface, I think I have a big chance of finishing the year of the top two, which is a huge goal of mine to be finally there and belong in that special group of players."
It had been an incredible week for Davidovich Fokina. It was a week that saw him upset world No.1 Novak Djokovic 6-1 in the third set in the second round and it was the first time he had played the final of an ATP Masters 1000. His efforts in Monte Carlo will see him move to a new career high ranking of 27.
"You know, was amazing experience," Davidovich Fokina said. "I enjoyed every day here, winning big, big - I don't know the words. I'm so tired. Yeah, what I was saying, you know, to beating Djoko, each player, that they are in high of their career. Was a tough week. A lot of emotions. My body now is going down. Maybe I need a beer or something.
"But, you know, for me this week with my team was amazing. Was a dream coming true to play here in Monte-Carlo, full crowd. You know, to hear the people supporting was amazing. I was at the bench thinking, wow, what a moment. I am enjoying real. That's it."
And like many players he has a superstition in that he wears one black sock and one white sock. He said laughing: "If you see me one day with two black socks or two white socks, it's not me. It's my brother. But, for example, for Wimbledon I have a little problem there. We are thinking what to do."
The doubles title went to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury who defeated Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-4, 3-6, 10-7.
|
