Federer confirms he’ll play French Open
Roger Federer will kick-start his clay court campaign at next month’s Geneva Open as he steps up his preparations for the French Open, the 39-year-old Swiss wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
After missing more than a year following two knee operations, Federer returned on Tour at last month’s Qatar Open, where he suffered a quarter-final loss to Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion then withdrew from the Dubai tournament in order to train and prepare going forward.
“Happy to let you know that I will play Geneva and Paris. Until then, I will use the time to train. Can’t wait to play in Switzerland again,” Federer, whose only French Open triumph came in 2009, said in a Twitter post.
The Geneva ATP 250 event is scheduled to run May 16-22, while the French Open begins May 30 in Paris.
TSITSIPAS ROLLS IN MONTE CARLO
Fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece earned his first ATP Masters 1000 title on Sunday, knocking off sixth-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-3 in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco.
Playing in his third Masters 1000-level final, Tsitsipas didn’t drop a set in the event. He was the runner-up in both previous finals.
“I had an unbelievable week in Monte Carlo,” Tsitsipas said.
“I can’t describe my feelings right now. I am overwhelmed by so many different emotions and nostalgia. It is incredible that I am able to be in the position that I am. We both deserved to be in the final. We put on an amazing fight and an amazing show. … I would consider it as the (best) week of my life so far.”
The 22-year-old needed just 71 minutes to race past Rublev, who scored a major upset of 11-time Monte Carlo Masters champion Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals.
Tsitsipas converted all three of his break opportunities and won 24 of 28 points on his first serve as he controlled the match from the start.
“The clay court season couldn’t have started better,” he said.
“It is the best thing, winning my first Masters 1000, and it is even more special doing it here on home soil in Monte Carlo and doing it on clay, which is my favourite surface.”
Rublev, 23, who still sports an Atp-best 24-4 record this season, was playing in his first ATP Masters 1000 final.
Meanwhile, Tsitsipas improved his match record this year to 22-5 with the win. The next closest player is world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev at 17-3.
Tsitsipas now has a 4-3 career edge against Rublev, earning some revenge for their most recent match. Rublev won that meeting at Rotterdam earlier this year, going on to win the final for his only title this year and the eighth of his career.
“I knew that he was going to be a very difficult opponent to face,” Tsitsipas said.
“There were a lot of nerves coming into that match. … Playing Andrey was a very difficult thing to do today, also considering that it was a final.”
Tsitsipas and Rublev will improve to Nos. 1 and 2 respectively in the ATP’S Race to Turin rankings with the finish, displacing previous No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia.