Stefanos Tsitsipas successfully defended his Monte Carlo Masters title with a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) victory over Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in Sunday's final.

Third seed Tsitsipas hammered 21 winners and made only 11 unforced errors in the Monaco sunshine to win in an hour and 36 minutes. It was the 23-year-old Greek's eighth Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) title and first in 11 months as he made the perfect start to the clay-court season.

"Things didn't seem to be going well at one point, but I managed to stay well-composed and am really proud of my game," said Tsitsipas in his on-court interview.

"Not in a million years would I have thought I would be in the situation I'm in today," he added.

"I'm very proud of the amount of belief I had in my game. He fought in moments I didn't really expect him to fight and hit some incredible winners. I believe that's a great result against him." He joins an illustrious list of players to win back-to-back Monte Carlo Masters, including Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Thomas Muster and Bjorn Borg.

In the men's doubles final, Joe Salisbury of Britain and his American partner Rajeev Ram defeated Columbian duo Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 to win the crown.

"It's a first title on clay together, and it's a surface that we thought was a weaker one for us. We worked well together," said Salisbury in his on-court interview.

"I've got the best player in the world on my team - that helps," Ram added.

(With input from AFP)