Djokovic warned but gets to final in Rome
ROME — Novak Djokovic knows it isn't model behavior when he loses his cool on the tennis court. Yet he just can't help himself.
Exactly two weeks after he was defaulted from the
U.S. Open, and a day after he was warned by the chair umpire for breaking his racket in a fit of rage, Djokovic received an obscenity warning midway through a 7-5, 6-3 win over 21-year-old Norwegian Casper Ruud in the Italian Open semifinals Sunday.
The obscenity came in the third game of the second set, by which time Djokovic had a running dialogue with the chair umpire over a series of contested calls.
“I deserved the warning,” Djokovic said. “I didn't say nice things in my language.”
As opposed to his previous two outbursts, this time there were fans in the stands. With 1,000 spectators allowed in to the Foro Italico for the first time this week, a large proportion of those in attendance were children.
Djokovic improved to 30-1 this year. His only loss came when he was thrown out of the U.S. Open for unintentionally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball during his round-of-16 match against Pablo Carreno Busta. In Djokovic's 10th Rome final — he has won four — today he'll face eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman, who edged 12th-seeded Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) in 3 hours, 15 minutes.
Schwartzman, who will play his first Masters 1000 final, beat nine-time Rome champion Rafael Nadal, who's considered the greatest clay-court player of all time, Friday in the quarterfinals.
In the women’s final, top-seeded Simona Halep will face second-seeded Karolina Pliskova, the defending champion.
Halep reached her third Rome final by beating Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to improve her record in tennis' restart to 9-0. Pliskova defeated fellow Czech Marketa Vondrousova, last year's French Open runner-up, 6-2, 6-4. Muguruza double-faulted on the final two points.
Roland Garros officials said five players were taken out of the French Open qualifying bracket after two tested positive for the virus and three others “have confirmed close contact with a coach who has tested positive for COVID-19.”