By India Today Sports Desk: Defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas crashed out of the Monte Carlo Masters after dropping to American Taylor Fritz inside the quarter-finals on Friday.
No.2 seed Tsitsipas, who walked onto the court docket docket with a 12-match profitable streak in Monte-Carlo, having acquired the match in 2021 and 2022, went down in direction of No.8 seed Fritz 2-6, 4-6.
Fritz raced to a 4-0 lead inside the opening set and wasted no time to wrap it on his service. Tsitsipas found some momentum inside the second set sooner than Fritz broke him for 4-3. The American did not look once more and registered his first Top 10 clay-court win. Fritz will meet Russian Andrey Rublev inside the semi-final.
“I just seemed off. My serve was not working very well and against opponents like Taylor, you have to serve well,” Tsitsipas said. “I merely couldn’t uncover the rhythm.
“I am much better than this and I’m disappointed I was not able to show my game. I tried to fight in the second set. It’s a good lesson. It’s not a happy day for me, but it’s a good lesson.”
Andrey Rublev overcame German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff with a 6-1, 7-6(5) victory. Rublev misplaced his first recreation on his serve nevertheless quickly bounced once more to win six in a row to pocket the opening set. Struff lastly crashed out nevertheless not sooner than troublesome Rublev.
Rublev broke Struff at 4-3 nevertheless the German broke once more inside the subsequent recreation and compelled a tiebreaker. However, the Russian star regained his momentum to prevail on his second match degree.
Elsewhere, Italy’s Jannik Sinner stormed into his third straight ATP Masters 1000 semi-final inside the Monte-Carlo Masters. In a battle between Italians, Sinner prevailed over Lorenzo Musetti to say a 6-2, 6-2 win.
Sinner moreover improved his head-to-head doc in direction of Musetti 7-0 and have turn out to be the first Italian to achieve the Monte-Carlo semi-finals since Fabio Fognini (2019). Sinner will play in direction of No.6 seed Holger Rune for a spot inside the remaining.