Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers on the main tour when they battle for the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters title on Sunday afternoon.
When the tournament began (and especially after Carlos Alcaraz withdrew), a championship match between No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Jannik Sinner seemed like an obvious destination. That became increasingly probable heading into semifinal Saturday, when Djokovic ran into Ruud and Sinner faced Tsitsipas. Instead, each semifinal produced a significant upset.
Ruud’s 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 success against Djokovic marked his first win over a world No. 1 and also his first win over Djokovic (previously 0-5). The 10th-ranked Norwegian’s maiden trip to the Monte-Carlo final has also featured defeats of Alejandro Tabilo, Hubert Hurkacz, and Ugo Humbert. On the heels of a somewhat disappointing 2023 campaign, a resurgent Ruud is now 24-6 this season.
Even though Tsitsipas is already a two-time champion of this event (2021, 2022), his third appearance in the final is a big surprise because it has come basically from out of nowhere. The Greek is struggling down at 12th in the rankings and really didn’t have anything more than a semifinal result in Los Cabos to show for his 2024 efforts prior to this week. Before beating Sinner, Tsitsipas ousted Laslo Djere, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Alexander Zverev, and Karen Khachanov.
The 25-year-old’s aforementioned Los Cabos run came to an end at the hands of none other than Ruud, who prevailed 6-4, 7-6(4). That gave Ruud a 2-1 lead in the head-to-head series after they split a pair of meetings in 2021 (Ruud won 7-6(4), 6-4 in Madrid before Tsitsipas got the job done 6-1, 6-4 in Toronto).
This should be a good one between two guys who have impressed throughout the week and have always been great on clay. Based on his 1-0 clay-court record against Tsitsipas and his proven stretch of positive results this entire year, a slight edge goes to Ruud.
Pick: Ruud in 3
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