As the sun began to set on Tuesday evening, Grigor Dimitrov booked his place in the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters third round — mightily relieved to fight another day. For much of his 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory, Dimitrov was constrained by the attacking instincts of Pierre-Hugues Herbert. It appeared that it wasn’t until the final game that fourth seed Dimitrov was really able to relax, open his shoulders in a love hold to complete a hard-fought win in one hour and 50 minutes. Monte-Carlo resident Dimitrov will now await the winner of last year’s finalist and Spanish No. 15 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas or Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. Earlier in the day, Kohlschreiber needed 71 minutes to beat American Tennys Sandgren, who...
Mischa Zverev played a game of patience on a sun-kissed Tuesday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters to advance to the third round. Clever service placement and a willingness to attack the net helped the German to a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(3) victory over seventh-seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille in two hours and five minutes. It is the first time Zverev has won back-to-back matches in 2018 (6-10 record). Largely everything Pouille hit came off in the first set, but it wasn’t without tension as he saved break points in three service games. However, his confidence and timing evaporated in the 26-minute second set, which saw Zverev take a 5-0 lead. Zverev was left frustrated at 2-3, 30/40 in the decider when he...
Dominic Thiem showcased once again his formidable powers of resilience on clay courts at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Tuesday. The fifth-seeded Austrian saved one match point in a 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 victory over #NextGenATP Russian Andrey Rublev for a place in the third round in as many years. Thiem, who has now contested 10 clay-court matches this year (9-1 record), led Rublev 4-1 in the deciding set before his 20-year-old opponent recovered and held one match point opportunity at 5-4, 40/30. For long periods Rublev had looked set to cause an upset against one of the ATP World Tour’s strongest performers on red dirt, but two run-around forehand winners from Thiem at 5-5 in the second set triggered a...
Stefanos Tsitsipas won a battle of #NextGenATP 19-year-olds at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Monday. Competing with confidence after two straight-sets victories in the qualifying tournament, Tsitsipas knocked out Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 6-4 in 81 minutes for a place in the second round. Tsitsipas won four of the first five games and recovered from 0/40 at 4-2. From 5-3 in the first set, the Greek qualifier won three straight games, but was soon pinned back by Shapovalov, who was also making his debut at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. The crucial break came in a 10-point seventh game of the second set. World No. 71 Tsitsipas will next challenge sixth seed and last year’s semi-finalist David Goffin...
Five months ago, Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin faced each other in the most important match of their careers in the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals championship match. On Monday, they put their singles rivalry aside, partnering for the first time in their careers to beat Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Fabrice Martin 7-6(3), 6-2 in 75 minutes at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. The Bulgarian-Belgian pairing had never played doubles with or against each other at any professional level, and Goffin, who had not played doubles since last April, owned just a 4-20 record in the discipline. So perhaps it was not a surprised when the team of singles stars trailed 3-0 in the opening set, but they battled back from there....
