Stefanos-Tsitsipas

MONACO — Fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas swatted aside unseeded Dan Evans 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday to reach the Monte Carlo Masters final for the first time, and stay on course for a first title this year.

The big-serving Greek faces the winner of a later semifinal between sixth-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev and unseeded Norwegian Casper Ruud.

Evans beat top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the third round. But he failed to threaten Tsitsipas in the same way and the match quickly slid away when he was serving at 3-2 down.

Tsitsipas, a French Open semifinalist last year, broke his serve five times and remains on track for a sixth career title.

He won his previous one in February last year at the Open 13 indoor tournament in Marseille — just weeks before France went into lockdown for the first time because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Monte Carlo was cancelled last year because of it.