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Novak Djokovic in the final of Rome against Diego Schwartzmann
Photo:
Riccardo Antimiani / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
The tennis world number one Novak Djokovic won the Masters in Rome.
In the first tournament after his disqualification at the US Open, he defeated the Argentine Diego Schwartzmann 7: 5, 6: 3 in 1:54 hours in the final of the 1000 tournament.
For the Serb it is the 36th Masters title;
He leaves Rafael Nadal behind, with whom he had previously shared the record.
At the first major sand tournament of the year, Schwartzmann eliminated one of the best clay court players in history in the quarter-finals, Nadal.
Against the agile Schwartzmann, Djokovic tried long to keep the rallies as short as possible.
Rallies on sand are considered to be longer than on other surfaces.
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The pose sits - like the mask: Novak Djokovic
Photo: Clive Brunskill / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
One stop at a time
Especially in the first set, Djokovic regularly interrupted rallies with stop balls - and drove Schwartzmann to despair.
However, the Serbs also made an unusually large number of mistakes: Only with the backhand he knocked 15 balls in the first set, Djokovic gave up the first two service games.
Djokovic only stabilized in his third service game, won four games in a row - and won the set in overtime.
The second round also started with a break for Schwartzmann.
After the direct re-break to 1: 1, he missed using breakballs in Djokovic's two subsequent service games.
Instead, the 1.70 big Argentine gave up his service game to make it 3: 5, and Schwartzmann only got 58 percent of the points after the first service.
Djokovic forced the decisive point with another stop, Schwartzmann put the ball out of bounds.
"That was a challenging week, the preparation for Paris could hardly have gone better," said Djokovic.
At the French Open that starts next week, Djokovic is one of the top favorites alongside Nadal.
Already in Rome the two were considered to be title contenders for historical reasons: since 2005 at least one of the two superstars has always been in the final.
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