Djokovic rolls to Italian title
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. ”
Djokovic improved to 31-1 this year — his only loss against Pablo Carreno Busta in the match where he was defaulted.
In the women’s final, top-seeded Simona Halep won her first Rome title when 2019 champion Karolina Pliskova retired during their match with a left thigh injury. Halep was leading 6-0, 2-1 when Pliskova stopped playing after just 31 minutes.
Original 9 up for Hall of Fame
Billie Jean King and the other members of the Original 9 who laid the groundwork for the women’s professional tennis tour are the first group nominated together for the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
They join Jonas Bjorkman,
Sergi Bruguera, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Lleyton Hewitt, Lisa Raymond and the late Dennis Van der Meer on the ballot announced for the Hall’s Class of 2021.
Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of when King, elected to the Hall in 1987 for her accomplishments on the court, and eight other players — P eaches Bartkowicz, Rosie Casals, Judy Dalton, Julie Heldman, Kerry Melville Reid, Kristy Pigeon, Nancy Richey and Valerie Ziegenfuss — signed $1 contracts to participate in Houston in the first women-only tennis tournament, taking a stand against the disparity in prize money between men and women at the time.
Oilers’ Draisaitl wins MVP award
Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl won the NHL’s MVP award after leading the league in scoring.
Draisaitl is the first German player to win the Hart Trophy. The 24-yearold Draisaitl had 110 points in 71 games for Edmonton.
He finished ahead of Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon and New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin in voting by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck won the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender, Nashville’s Roman Josi got the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman, and Colorado’s Cale Makar won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
In other news:
• Bob Nevin ,afan favorite who won two Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs before a successful run as captain of the New York Rangers, died at age 82 of an unknown cause.
Jordan to form NASCAR team
Denny Hamlin has joined Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan to form a NASCAR team with Bubba Wallace as the driver, a high-profile pairing of a Black majority team owner and the only Black driver at NASCAR’s top level.
“Historically, NASCAR has struggled with diversity and there have been few Black owners,“Jordan said in a social media post. “The timing seemed perfect as NASCAR is evolving and embracing social change more and more.”
Jordan becomes the first Black principal owner of a full-time Cup team since Hall of Famer Wendell Scott drove his own race car in 495 races from 1961 to 1973. Scott’s 1964 victory at the Jacksonville 200 is the only win by a Black driver in Cup history.
Jordan joins former NBA player Brad Daugherty ,a partner at JTG Daugherty Racing, as the only Black owners at NASCAR’s elite Cup level.