Djokovic takes fifth Italian title; Halep’s first
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.”
In the women’s final, top-seeded Simona Halep won her first Rome title when 2019 champion Karolina Pliskova retired midway through their match with a left thigh injury. Halep was leading 6-0, 2-1 when Pliskova stopped playing after 31 minutes.
Schwartzman had beaten nine-time Rome champion
Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals then edged Denis Shapovalov in a long three-setter in the semifinals.
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 Carreno 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.
Elsewhere: One woman who was entered in French Open qualifying tested positive for the coronavirus and was dropped from the field. The French tennis federation did not identify the player. … Former finalist Andrey Rublev began his Hamburg European Open campaign by defeating American qualifier Tennys Sandgren 6-3, 6-3.
ETC.
Soccer: An abnormally short preseason and a lengthy list of injury and coronavirus-related absentees didn’t stop Manchester City getting off to a fast start in the English Premier League. City scored in the first half through Kevin de Bruyne and Phil Foden
before weathering a fightback from Wolverhampton in a 3-1 win at Molineux. … Zlatan Ibrahimovic
scored twice to help AC Milan beat Bologna 2-0 in Serie A and keep the Rossoneri optimism alive at the start of the new season. … With a penalty save, a clean sheet and a win, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez couldn’t have wished for a better debut for Aston Villa. Villa opened its campaign beating 10-man Sheffield United 1-0, and had Martinez to thank after he tipped aside a 36thminute penalty by John Lundstram.
Tour de Frances:
French judicial authorities have opened an investigation into suspected doping during the race targeting the Arkea-Samsic team. Two persons close to the squad led by Colombian rider Nairo Quintana were being held for questioning.