ON HIS OWN
Djokovic surpasses Nadal’s ATP title haul
NOVAK DJOKOVIC won his first tournament since his US Open disqualification – and then started the pre- French Open mind games by claiming the autumnal conditions would help him in Paris next week.
The world No1 showed his formidable mental strength to come from a double break down in the first set and beat Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 7- 5, 6- 3 in the Rome Masters final to claim a record 36th ATP Masters crown.
Djokovic, 33, had shared the record with Rafa Nadal, the 12- time French Open champion.
The Serb insisted Nadal, who lost to Schwartzman in the quarter- finals, will still be the man to beat at Roland Garros ahead of him and US Open winner Dominic Thiem.
“Even though Nadal lost this week, a lot of people will agree he is the No1 favourite,” said Djokovic. “The record he has there, you just can’t put anyone in front of him.”
But the 17- time Major winner added: “Diego showed he is beatable on clay. The conditions that they played on – heavy clay, not much bounce, night session, we are going to have that in Paris.
“I’m pretty sure he does not prefer that to high bounce. I know he likes the high bounce, and hot and warm and fast conditions where he can use his spin a lot.” Djokovic has won 31 of his 32 matches this year, with his only “loss” coming in New York this month when he was defaulted for hitting a ball at a line judge.
“Having a tournament a week after that happened helped me a lot,” he said.
“I really wanted to get on court and get whatever traces of that out – and I think I had a really good week.” Djokovic set another milestone in Italy as he overtook idol Pete Sampras’ mark of 286 weeks as world No1.
He is now behind only Roger Federer’s record of 302 weeks. Simona Halep confirmed her status as the women’s favourite in Paris, claiming the Rome Masters title for the first time after Karolina Pliskova was forced to retire in the final.
The Wimbledon champion led 6- 0, 2- 1 when her Czech opponent, who started the match with a heavily strapped left thigh, pulled out after 32 minutes on court. World No1 Ash Barty will not be travelling to France while US Open champion Naomi Osaka has also withdrawn from the Grand Slam because of a hamstring injury.