Tennis Olympic champion Alexander Zverev missed the first-time entry into the final of the Monte Carlo clay court master.
Born in Hamburg, he lost in the semi-finals to defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas 4: 6, 2: 6 and offered a poor performance overall.
For the 24-year-old Zverev, the one-year-old Greek remains a feared opponent: In the tenth duel, Zverev lost for the seventh time, and in the third encounter on sand there was the third defeat.
On this surface, the German number one had recently suffered a bitter five-set defeat against Tsitsipas in the semifinals of the French Open 2021.
While he played against the Spanish surprise man Alejandro Davidovich Fokina - who defeated the Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic in round two - on Sunday (2.30 p.m. on Sky) to win the title again, Monte Carlo remains the only clay court masters that Zverev has not yet won.
He triumphed twice in Madrid and once in Rome.
In Monte Carlo, Zverev was only in the semifinals for the second time.
Zverev and Tsitsipas had to do hard work in the quarter-finals on Friday and fought each other in three contested sets.
Zverev defeated the Italian Jannik Sinner after 3:07 hours, his Greek rival the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman in 2:43 hours.
The hardships were reflected in a lack of concentration in the first set: Tsitsipas gave up his serve twice, Zverev three times - ultimately also decisive when the score was 4: 5.
Zverev never found the necessary security in the second set either.
Overall, he made 20 unforced errors on Saturday, only scoring in one of his ten network attacks.
Only three aces faced four double faults, Tsitsipas made only one of eight aces.
Consequently, the game was decided after 1:15 hours in favor of the Greek.