World No.1 Novak Djokovic, candidate for a sixth crown at the Masters 1000 in Rome, dominated Casper Ruud (10th) 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday to join Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final and becomes the fifth player to reach the bar of 1,000 victories on the circuit.
Still without a title this year after a first quarter almost at a standstill due to his non-vaccination against Covid, the Serb had to work against a combative Ruud.
He joined the very closed club of players with 1,000 victories on the ATP circuit, which also includes Jimmy Connors (record holder with 1,274 successes), Roger Federer, Ivan Lendl and Rafael Nadal.