Madrid (Spain) – Great use of serve and firmness on base balls allowed Thiago Monteiro from Ceará to score a gigantic victory on the fast clay of Madrid. Even with a closed roof, which speeds up the game even more, he dominated the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, number 7 in the world and who is coming off great weeks, with splits of 6/4 and 6/4.
To reach the third round of a Masters 1000 for the first time in his career, Monteiro recorded his fourth victory in ten matches against top 10 level opponents, although only three of them actually ended. The 30-year-old left-hander had already beaten Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on clay in Rio, the Dane Holger Rune on the synthetic covered Davis floor and inherited the victory over Carlos Alcaraz due to injury, also at the Rio Open.
Currently 118th in the ranking, he will still not be able to regain his place in the top 100, temporarily rising to 105th place. This task is reserved for the duel against the Czech Jiri Lehecka, ranked 30th in Madrid, or the Serbian Hamad Medjedovic, ranked 130th in the world, who are unable to start the match this Saturday due to rain.
Exceptional first set
Tsitsipas arrived at the match as Monte Carlo champion and Barcelona finalist in the last two weeks, which gave him total favoritism. But the Brazilian played a first set of exceptional technical quality, making the most of his shots with the roof closed. He made just seven errors from the base, a single one with his backhand, his weakest point, and 12 of his 32 serves were not even returned.
Monteiro had a tight first service game, in which he needed four advantages to confirm. In all of them, he worked the first serve very well, varying directions and effects. This seemed to increase his confidence and soon after he got the break, the result of a firm counterattack with a forehand that the Greek didn’t catch on the volley and a very difficult cross shot. With calm and always aggressive manner, Monteiro maintained his services until closing the first set.
Returns lead to victory
Tsitsipas has a strong history in Madrid, having been a finalist in 2019 and a semi-finalist two years ago, but the pressure placed on him by the Brazilian did not make him feel at ease for a single minute. He tried all the time to open the way to use his powerful forehand, but found a very firm and quick-recovering Monteiro in the points.
That’s how Monteiro opened the second set with a break, after a precious backhand cross, and it took little time to achieve another break in the fifth game. Tsitsipas raised himself to his level, but he was facing a very confident opponent and therefore remained under pressure. He even avoided two match-points, both with great moves, including a drop shot.
The final game was exciting and very well played. The experienced Greek demanded that Thiago avoid a break point by always being extremely firm with his strikes. Making the most of his forehand, Monteiro needed two more match-points to finally put an end to his magical Saturday. He finished the game with an 89% first serve accuracy rate, having won 76% of them.
Monteiro entered the main draw after winning two games in the qualifiers, against Lucas Pouille and Radu Albot, and in the opening round of the draw he beat the Serbian and 85th in the world Dusan Lajovic. Brazil’s number 2 now has four victories in the 10 Masters already played.
