A five-year wait, many that separated him from the last victory in Rome.
Stronger than everything, Novak Djokovic.
In his tenth final, he finally gives himself the fifth victory at the Internazionali Open Bnl d'Italia and thus closes the bad ending of New York with the disqualification from the US Open.
Today against Diego Schwartzman he suffered the physicality and the great desire of those who were facing his first final of a master 1000.
The Serbian still won in two sets, 7-5 in the first, very hard-fought until the end, and then 6-3, freeing all his tennis despite not being in top condition: "Today I won a very tough match, I'm very happy. I didn't play my best tennis but I found the best tennis when it had to be decisive ", admitted at the end of the match the Serbian, who from the age of 33 in May becomes the oldest player of the Open era to have won the tournament in Rome: "I didn't know it but ok, too bad for the young people ....", smiles the number one in the world.
Then he gets serious and warns: "I don't feel old, but I'm proud of these statistics", the Serbian smiled at the end of the match.
"Age doesn't change much for me - concluded Djokovic - I feel motivated and young in soul, head but also in body".
Even stronger than the rain and humidity that penalized him since yesterday and forced him to vary his strategy by often focusing on short balls and lobs: "I wanted to change the pace and be unpredictable. Maybe I exaggerated - he later admitted -. It was. a mental block, but with players like Diego, who is very far from the back line, it's always a good shot. "
Djokovic thus concludes a week that was certainly not played to the maximum of his potential but which nevertheless led him to triumph also thanks to the premature elimination of Nadal in the quarters, precisely by Schwartzman.
And it sounds like a message to the tennis world in view of Roland Garros: the 'Djoker' is there and has no intention of stopping.
Archived his 81 / o career title, 36 / a victory in a Master 1000 and above all 287 weeks at the top of the ATP rankings.
Having overcome a sacred monster in the history of tennis like Pete Sampras, Djokovic's run-up to 310 weeks, the absolute record of his majesty Roger Federer, starts today.