Back on clay, and with his father back in the stands, Stefanos Tsitsipas returned to form and defended his Monte Carlo crown

HIGHLIGHTS: Tsitsipas def. Davidovich Fokina, 6-3, 7-6 (3)

Moments after beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 7-6 (3) to win his second straight title in Monte Carlo on Sunday, Stefanos Tsitsipas gave thanks to the ground beneath him, and to a person in the stands. In both cases, the gestures felt appropriate.

First, Tsitsipas got down on his hands and knees and stuck his face in the red-clay surface. I’m not sure if he kissed it, or ate some of it, or prayed to it, but the message was clear: After playing five hard-court events in 2022, and failing to win any of them, he was happy to be back on good old European dirt. This was the point in 2021 when Tsitsipas’ season took off: He won Monte Carlo, nearly beat Rafael Nadal in the Barcelona final, and nearly beat Novak Djokovic in the Roland Garros final. So far his level is rising the same way in 2022.

With his devotions to la terre battue complete, Tsitsipas stood up and walked over to hug his father and coach, Apostolos. The inseparable pair had separated for the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami, and it didn’t go well. With Thomas Enqvist in his corner, Tsitsipas failed to reach the quarterfinals at either tournament.

This week Apostolos, as always, made his presence known on the sidelines. He was as vocal as ever, and was warned at least twice for coaching his son, including once in a crucial moment in the final. Whether it’s Apostolos’ energy, or his specific and illegal coaching tips, that help Tsitsipas is hard to say. Either way, it will be an issue again this spring, as Fabio Fognini pointedly reminded the tour after losing to the Greek early in the week. “Coaching or not coaching. That’s a big problem!! Right ATP Tour?” Fognini wrote on Instagram after giving Tsitsipas a drive-by handshake.

That controversy aside, Tsitsipas spent the week showing us what makes him such a force on clay. The key to beating him on any surface is to make him hit as many backhands from deep in the court as possible. But the slower clay gives him more time to run around that shot and hit forehands instead. In the first set against Davidovich Fokina, Tsitsipas hit 71 percent of his ground strokes from the forehand side, and just 29 from the backhand side.

Unlike most of his opponents, Tsitsipas also has the speed, and the forehand, to make net-rushing a reliable long-term tactic. His forehand was there for him when he needed it most on Sunday: Serving at 5-6, 30-30, with the second set potentially slipping away, he controlled that crucial rally with his forehand, and ended it with a precise cross-court strike. From there, he held and played a solid tiebreaker for the title.

Davidovich Fokina came up a few unforced errors short in the final, but that shouldn’t take away from the Spaniard’s breakthrough week. The ATP’s cadre of Next Gen contenders seems to grow by the month; at the start of Monte Carlo, the focus of everyone’s attention was Davidovich Fokina’s 18-year-old countryman, Carlos Alcaraz. But by Sunday, ADF had made his potential clear, both as a player and a crowd-pleaser.

Davidovich Fokina dove until his shirts were covered with clay. He fist-pumped and flapped his arms to get the Monte Carlo revved up, and after his semifinal victory, he leaped into his player box and did a soccer-style celebration with his family and coaches. Most important, the 22-year-old played with a daring blend of speed, aggression, and resilience that saw him past Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz and Grigor Dimitrov, all in three sets.

With his runner-up finish, Davidovich Fokina will move from No. 46 in the rankings into the Top 20 for the first time. Hopefully that’s where he stays, because he would make an excellent, fan-friendly addition to the tour’s upper echelon.

Afterward, Tsitsipas stated his goals plainly: “If I’m able to win matches with the consistency I do on this surface,” he said, “I think I have a big chance of finishing the year of the top two.”

There was only one discordant note in Tstitsipas’ march through Monte Carlo: Serving for the match against Diego Schwartzman in the quarterfinals, and again in the final, he broke down. Maybe this title will cure him off that last, lingering dent in his confidence. What we do know for now is that he has shaken off his early-spring doldrums. With clay under his feet, and his father close by, Tsitsipas is back in the Roland Garros conversation again.