Djokovic wins Rome title: ‘I moved on’ after US Open default

ROME — For four or five days after being defaulted from the U.S. Open, Novak Djokovic did some serious soul searching.

Then he got back on the tennis court — and since then it’s been fairly straightforward, at least in terms of results.

Dropping only one set all week, Djokovic won his fifth Italian Open title on Monday after beating Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3 in the final, and restored his confidence heading into Roland Garros, which starts in six days.

“I did experience mentally some kind of ups and downs in the first four-five days after that happened. I was in shock,” Djokovic said of the default 15 days ago for unintentionally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball in a fit of anger.

“But I moved on and, really, I never had an issue in my life to move on

from something. Regardless how difficult it is I try to take the next day and hope for the best and move on. Having a tournament a week after that happened helped a lot ... just because I really wanted to get on the court and just get whatever traces of that — if there’s any — out, and I think I had a really good week.”

The only real issue for Djokovic this past week was his behavior again.

He received warnings from the chair umpire for smashing a racket in the quarterfinals and for foul language in the semifinals.

Still, Djokovic improved to 31-1 this year — with his only loss against Pablo Carreño Busta in the match where he was defaulted. He also passed childhood idol Pete Sampras for the second-most weeks at No. 1 with 287 — and trails only Roger Federer’s 310 weeks in the top spot.

In the women’s final, top-seeded Simona Halep won her first Rome title when 2019 champion Karolína Plíšková retired midway through their match with a left thigh injury.

Halep was leading 6-0, 2-1 when Plíšková stopped playing after just 31 minutes.

Seahawks stop Newton at 1 on last play, beat Patriots 35-30

SEATTLE — Cam Newton was stopped at the 1-yard line on the final play and the Seattle Seahawks held off the New England Patriots 35-30 on Sunday night.

Newton led New England 80 yards in the closing moments, trying to spoil the performance of Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson, who matched his career high with five touchdown passes.

Newton and the Patriots reached the 1 on a pass to N’Keal Harry with 3 seconds left. On the final play, Newton tried to run power to the left, but was upended by L.J. Collier in the biggest play of his young career. Newton, who had two rushing touchdowns in the game, never got close to the goal line and Seattle’s sideline erupted in celebration.

Newton was excellent in his first road game with the Patriots throwing for 397 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He ran for another 47 yards, but couldn’t get the last three feet to give New England a victory.

Wilson was masterful on the other side, completing 21 of 28 passes for 288 yards. It was his fourth career game with five touchdown passes. Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, David Moore, Freddie Swain and Chris Carson all took turns celebrating in the end zone. Carson was the last, running under a 18-yard rainbow toss from Wilson against the blitz with 4:32 left to give the Seahawks a 35-23 lead.

But Newton wasn’t done. His second TD run pulled New England to 35-30 with 2:16 left. It was his eighth career game with at least two rushing TDs, setting an NFL record.