Bluffing, Monteiro prolongs the dream in Rome!

It's one of the great stories of this clay-court season. Thiago Monteiro, ranked 106th in the world, has qualified for the last 16 of the Rome Masters 1000. Although he hasn't made much noise, the left-hander has just achieved quite a feat: he is the first Brazilian to reach the last 16 of a Masters 1000 since Bellucci, already in Rome (2016).

After shining in Madrid, when he ousted Stefanos Tsitsipas in a match of the highest quality (6-4, 6-4), Monteiro followed up his performance in Rome with a perfect performance. Just as he did in Madrid, the Fortaleza native came through the qualifying rounds with flying colors, disposing of Gaël Monfils (6-2, 7-5) and Jordan Thompson (6-1, 6-3) with great authority. Having qualified for the third round, the left-hander faced much tougher opposition on Sunday. Faced with Miomir Kecmanovic, who had beaten Casper Ruud in the previous round, the battle was fierce. Saving a match point, Monteiro finally prevailed in over 2h30 of play (6-2, 4-6, 7-6). For a place in the quarter-finals, he will face the winner of the match between Ben Shelton and Zhizhen Zhang.

The 29-year-old's performance is truly impressive. Indeed, Monteiro has had an unusual life trajectory. Abandoned at birth and raised by a very loving adoptive mother, Thiago had to make many sacrifices to succeed. Under the watchful eye of Kuerten, the Brazilian is now in the process of relaunching his career. After a disappointing 2023, he had left the world's top 100. With two excellent tournaments under his belt, he's on his way back.