Superb Monteiro stuns in-form Tsitsipas in Madrid

Thiago Monteiro produced the upset of the tournament so far Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open, where the Brazilian qualifier downed the in-form Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 with a stunning second-round performance.

Tsitsipas entered the match with a 10-1 record on clay for season, but the sixth-seeded Greek was unable to match Monteiro’s consistent, clean hitting in the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. The No. 118 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Monteiro powered 24 winners to clinch the fourth Top 10 win of his career on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium.

“For sure one of the biggest wins of my career,” said Monteiro. “I knew it was a really tough match and I tried to just believe in myself all the time. I was feeling really good today on the court. With these conditions, I usually like to play a lot on clay and at altitude. I’ve played three matches already so I had a little bit of rhythm and confidence, so I just fought to the end and believed I could win this match.”

A great win for @dThiagoMonteiro 🔥🎾

He needed his best #PerformanceRating of the year to do it 📈#PerformanceRating combines #InAttack, #ConversionScore, #StealScore, and #ShotQuality to measure a player's performance over the course of a match.#TennisInsights | @atptour |… pic.twitter.com/ZugCaVLK4j

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) April 27, 2024

Last week Monteiro lost in the first round at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Oerias, Portugal to the then-World No. 255 Jaime Faria. The Brazilian’s run in Madrid and particularly his victory over the World No. 7 Tsitsipas are demonstrations of how quickly fortunes can change in tennis.

“Every week you have a new opportunity,” said Monteiro. “These past few weeks I wasn’t feeling really good on the court. I was trying to do well at Challengers but it didn’t work. I just kept up the hard work, day by day. Even when I was not feeling good and not winning matches, I kept believing in myself, and this week it has paid off.”

"I had a very good opponent on the other side of the net," reflected Tsitsipas in his post-match press conference. "He was coming up with great shots and punishing me every single time I played short. I ddn't manage to get the depth of the court.

"He was very aggressive, very persistent. His first-serve percentage was pretty high, very good first-serve percentage... I just wish I was able to return the way I did in the last game. I felt out of rhythm the entire match on my returns. I felt very unbalanced and my body was going all over the place."

Monteiro’s lefty serve was the key to his 96-minute triumph against Tsitsipas. The 29-year-old won 76 per cent (42/55) of points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats. He did not face a break point until the final game of the match, when he held his nerve to rebuff the Greek and close out his win on his fourth match point.

“It was really important," said Monteiro. "It’s a big key to play these top guys, you have to serve really well. Today it worked really good. I’m really proud of myself that I could sustain this kind of intensity and also concentration. It’s a big win and I’m very happy and want to keep going forward.”

Now into the third round of an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time, Monteiro will next take on Jiri Lehecka in Madrid, where he reached the second round on event debut last year. The 30th-seeded Lehecka eased past Hamad Medjedovic 7-5, 6-4.