Today, April 12, at the Monte Carlo Masters, it is time for the quarterfinal matches. Only one Russian, 15th seed Karen Khachanov, reached the top eight. His opponent in the quarterfinals was the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (12). Khachanov defeated Russian debutant Daniil Medvedev (4) in the third round 6:3, 7:5. And Tsitsipas broke the resistance of Alexander Zverev (5) 7:5, 7:6.
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Tsitsipas has recently lost his previous form. It was once the third racquet in the world, but now it’s not even in the top 10. But in Monte Carlo Stefanos is always dangerous. He took the title here twice: in 2021 and 2022. And so far these are the greatest achievements of his career (besides the victory in the Final Tournament in 2019). A year ago, the Greek tennis player left the competition right in the quarterfinals, so this time he probably intended to advance further.
Khachanov, on the other hand, reached this stage for the first time in Monte Carlo. So, generally speaking, he had nothing to lose. The statistics of personal meetings with Tsitsipas also did not favor the Russian: 7-1 in favor of the Greek, including 6-0 in the first six matches. He first defeated Karen at the Shanghai Masters in 2017, and his last victory to date was in the quarterfinals of a tournament of the same category in Paris at the end of last season. Khachanov was also able to beat Stefanos last year 7:6 (7:4), 6:4 in the round of 16 in Miami. They had only met once before on clay: the Greeks won 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 in the round of 16 in Rome.
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Russian tennis player Natalya Vikhlyantseva made it clear that she considers Tsitsipas the favorite, but at the same time emphasized an important point by which Khachanov can win: stability. Let us remember that Tsitsipas had an unstable second set against Zverev. The Greek led 5-0, in the sixth game he missed two match points in the reception and in the end he achieved victory only in the tiebreaker.
“The match with Tsitsipas will be difficult, but Karen has a chance to win. The second game of the duel between Stefanos and Alexander Zverev shows one important thing: if Karen plays consistently, she will have no equal until the semifinals,” Metaratings.by quotes Vikhlyantseva.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and his one-handed backhand at the 2024 Monte Carlo Masters
Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images
Khachanov entered the match unsuccessfully and Tsitsipas immediately earned a triple break point. The Russian played two of them, but in the third he made a mistake in length and the Greek got the break. However, Karen was able to do a reverse breakup. On the reception he acted with more precision than Stefanos and took advantage of the second break point (1: 1). Khachanov then returned his serve, but was unable to respond with a break: 3-1 in favor of Tsitsipas.
The fifth game, on her serve, Karen finally won, making several great plays. In one of them, the Russian twice responded with candles to the opponent’s blows, and in the third blow the Greek could not stand it and hit on contact. And in another, Khachanov performed the most accurate shortening. Unfortunately, these shining moments didn’t help Karen save the party. She regularly struggled on the catch and once even faced a break point but failed.
Before the tenth game, when Tsitsipas had to serve for the set at 5:4, Khachanov took a medical break, complaining about his left thigh, which was then massaged for a long time. Serving for the match, the Greek began with a double fault, which was already his third. But then he didn’t give up a single play: 6-4 in 49 minutes.
In the second set, Tsitsipas was the first to reach break point, but Khachanov was saved in the third game thanks to a successful approach to the net. And in the fifth game, after 30:30, the Russian made two offensive errors: in one play, Karen hit the net, and in the other, he went out of bounds with a smash. So Stefanos won 3:2 with a break. Khachanov, who began to make mistakes much more frequently, no longer had a chance to recover. In the seventh game, Tsitsipas again took the opponent’s serve from him: he committed a double fault at minute 0:40. Serving for the match at 5:2, the Greek took advantage of the second match point: 6:4, 6:2 in 1 hour 23 minutes. Throughout the match, Stefanos completed seven aces, five of them in the second game.
Thus Khachanov failed to reach his first semi-final at the Monte Carlo Masters. Now his win-loss statistic in meetings with Tsitsipas is 1-8. Stefanos, who is now two steps away from winning the tournament for the third time, will next face the winner of the pair Holger Rune (Denmark, 7) – Jannik Sinner (Italy, 2).
All quarterfinals will take place today, April 12. The semi-finals will be played on Saturday, April 13 and the final on Sunday, April 14. Follow all the events of the Monte Carlo Masters in the “Championship”.
