Holder Tsitsipas storms into Monte-Carlo quarter-finals for fifth straight year

Holder Stefanos Tsitsipas raced into the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Portugal’s Nuno Borges.

The sixth-seeded Greek, the winner of the title in three of the past four years, hit 18 winners to his opponent’s three as he blasted his way into the last eight in 64 minutes.

Tsitsipas, ranked No 8, also joins Rafael Nadal as the only other man to reach the quarters five years in a row since 2000. He will face No 13 seed Lorenzo Musetti next.

“Most games were really close,” Tsitsipas said on court. “I don’t think the score resembles the match. There was a lot more than the score shows. We both tried to push each other to the limit. He was maybe unable to take advantage of certain opportunities and I handled them much better than I expected.”

Ahead of his victory, the Greek beat Australian Jordan Thompson (4-6, 6-4, 6-2).

Borges, ranked No 43, benefitted from the abandonment of Dane Holger Rune, the No 10 seed (6-2, 3-0) and edged out Spaniard Pedro Martinez Portero (7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4) earlier in the tournament.

Monte-Carlo Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Monte-Carlo Country Club, clay, EUR 6.128.940, most recent results first):

• Alejandro Tabilo vs. Grigor Dimitrov: thursday
• Alex De Minaur (8) beat Daniil Medvedev (9): 6-2, 6-2
• Lorenzo Musetti beat Matteo Berrettini: 6-3, 6-3
• Carlos Alcaraz (2) beat Daniel Altmaier (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Alexei Popyrin beat Casper Ruud (4): 6-4, 3-6, 7-5
• Arthur Fils (12) beat Andrey Rublev (7): 6-2, 6-3
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Jack Draper (5): 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4