First surprise of this day in the Masters1000 in Madrid. The Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (n.7 in the ranking), among the favorites on the eve, was defeated by the Brazilian Thiago Monteiro (n.118 in the world) with the score of 6-4 6-4. An excellent performance from the South American, with 89% of first serves on court and capable of putting the long Hellenic in difficulty the reverse diagonal. It must be said, the performance of the native of Athens was decidedly subdued, very far from the levels achieved in Monte Carlo.
In the first set the Brazilian is very good at holding the first turn of serve and then putting great pressure on Tsitsipas’ left side. The Greek struggles to contain the left-handed accelerations of Monteiro, who is very capable of exploiting the forehand-backhand intersection. And so, he gets the break in the third game. A decisive break in the history of the set, given an extraordinary performance by Monteiro at serve (94% of first serves on court, with 77% of points).
In the ssecond September the South American is very good at interpreting the moment and obtaining the break at the start, often forcing the Greek into errors. Tsitsipas risks sinking in the fifth and seventh games, canceling two double break points, as well as two match points in the ninth. Stefanos showed a burst of pride in the tenth game, with a break point constructed but not exploited. Monteiro holds his ground and closes the case at 6-4.
Reading theand statisticsin addition to the service data stated, Tsitsipas’s 58% negative first serve rate on the court is surprising, a finding that made a big difference given the Brazilian’s performance with the fundamentals.
