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....
Lucas Pouille, the No. 7 seed at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, discusses why he loves the clay-court swing, the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters and more ahead of his opening match against Mischa Zverev. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com.
Novak Djokovic sent out a warning to his ATP World Tour rivals on Monday in his first match since reuniting with Marian Vajda, his coach from June 2006 to May 2017. Two-time former champion Djokovic didn’t let national sentiment, or even friendship, get in the way of a 6-0, 6-1 victory over fellow Serbian Dusan Lajovic at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. His fourth match win of the year came in 56 minutes. "I thought it was good considering the amount of matches I've played in the last almost 12 months," Djokovic said. "I thought all in all, it was a great start of the tournament." The ninth seed, who resides in a seafront Monte-Carlo apartment, required just 22 minutes to...
Kei Nishikori could easily have endured a short stay at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, six years on from his debut. But the Japanese star dug deep on Monday to maintain his hold on Tomas Berdych, a resident of the Monaco principality. Nishikori triumphed 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 over one hour and 46 minutes to improve to 5-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. "It's actually great to come back this tournament," said Nishikori, who received on-court treatment for a sore wrist. "I haven't got a lot of matches this year. I hope I can play more matches on clay. I always enjoy this Europe season... I feel like Tomas was struggling little bit in second, and third too. Nobody's expecting I...
