Stefanos Tsitsipas continued the defence of his Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters title with a 7-5 7-6(1) victory over Laslo Djere.
Tsitsipas reached the quarter-finals in a hard-fought straight sets win over the Serbian.
The Greek didn’t have his best match but gained valuable momentum on his second serve and on return as he broke once to reach the last eight.
After the match Tsitsipas admitted it was a tough contest, “I knew I had to be alert,” Tsitsipas told the ATP website.
“He is someone who competes very well on clay. He stays consistent and puts a lot of balls back and I really had to work hard for this win. It was important to get a good dynamic start in the tie-break and stay in rallies and take my chances when they appeared.”
Despite Tsitsipas’ constant consistency on the tour, the 23 year-old is looking for his first title since winning Lyon last May.
Next for Tsitsipas will be Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals who edged past rising star Lorenzo Musetti 2-6 6-4 6-3 in 2 hours and 34 minutes.
In his on-court interview Tsitsipas admitted that both Schwartzman and Musetti have perfect games for clay-court tennis, “Both [Schwartzman and Musetti] can compete well on clay,” Tsitsipas explained.
“They both have a good game for clay courts and all I have to do is be ready and show up with good mentality and do my job with passion and dedication.”
Tsitsipas will be hoping to build confidence ahead of Roland Garros and this week seems the perfect opportunity to do that with the likes of Novak Djokovic, Casper Ruud and Felix Auger-Aliassime already out of the tournament.
Schwartzman currently leads their head-to-head 2-1 with Tsitsipas winning their only meeting on clay.
