Defending champ Tsitsipas survives Thompson in Monte-Carlo opener

When it comes to the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Stefanos Tsitsipas almost always finds a way.

The three-time champion delivered an inspired turnaround on Tuesday to move past Australia’s Jordan Thompson 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 and kickstart his title defence at the ATP Masters 1000. Tsitsipas squandered a 5-2 lead in the second set, but produced an instinctive response en route to improving to 4-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Thompson.

“I really didn’t know what to expect, you don’t know what your opponent is capable of,” said Tsitsipas. “He showed a good first set, he seemed to be playing quite reserved and wasn’t giving me much to work with. I was just trying to find something to reignite that consistency within my game.”

The No. 38 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Thompson dropped just four points on serve in the opening set, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Yet the key behind Tsitsipas’ comeback was his shift to a more aggressive return position in the second set, when he moved inside the baseline to apply significant pressure in the Australian’s service games.

“I tried to work around my serve, I felt like these were the moments that were tricky at the start of the match,” added Tsitsipas. “Once that felt more consistent, I tried to focus on my return. Trying to return from far back didn’t seem to work much… I have had success returning far back on clay courts, but today it didn’t do the job, so I had to rely on closer returns, and it seemed to work well.”

Thompson was ultimately left to rue a blazed smash to gift Tsitspas a decisive break lead in the deciding set. In the third round, the 26-year-old will face Nuno Borges or Pedro Martinez.

Tsitsipas, who has won three of the previous four editions of the ATP Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo, now boasts a 21-3 record in Monte-Carlo. With a fourth title, the Greek No. 1 would trail only 11-time winner Rafael Nadal as the second-most successful player at the event.

Indian Wells champion Jack Draper made an impressive start to his clay season with a 6-1, 6-1 win against Marcos Giron. The British lefty, competing at a career-high No. 6 in the PIF ATP Rankings, next plays Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.