Tsitsipas ups his Monte Carlo game with quarter-final

Stefanos Tsitsipas continued his upward trajectory this season, with the fourth seed powering to his eighth quarter-final at the Masters 1000 level on Thursday in  Monte Carlo.

The Greek beat Santiago champion Cristian Garin 6-3, 6-4 to play his first quarter here.

Tsitsipas remains second this season behind Andrey Rublev with 19 match wins to 21 for the Russian.

Tsitsipas needed an hour and three-quarters to advance into a match with Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who beat French wild card Lucas Pouille.6-2, 7-6(2).

“I don’t know him very well, but he is a Spaniard,” Tsitsipas said of his upcoming opponent.

“I feel like he has played on clay before, plenty of matches. He knows the surface pretty well, so he is going to be a challenge for me.” 

Tsitsipas characterised his defeat of Chile’s Garin as “a really difficult task to complete.”

“Cristian played good tennis and gave me a hard time out on the court, “I stayed composed and focused throughout the entire match.

“I was fighting, putting my best performance out there. I was creating a lot of opportunities with my forehand and I think my serve paid off pretty well.”