Djokovic, Swiatek favored in French after winning Italian

That loss to Carlos Alcaraz seems to have motivated Novak Djokovic to step up his game. Just in time, too.

A week after his defeat to the 19-year-old Alcaraz in Madrid, Djokovic won the Italian Open without dropping a set on Sunday for his first title of the year.

Having missed a large portion of the season because he wasn’t vaccinated against the coronavirus, the top-ranked Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-0, 7-6 (5) for his sixth Rome title.

Now, both Djokovic and Alcaraz need to be considered as top favorites for the French Open, which starts Sunday.

“I go there with the highest ambitions,” Djokovic said. “I really like my chances. … The way I’ve been feeling on the court and off the court in the last few weeks, I really think I can go far.”

The status of Rafael Nadal, who has won 13 of his record 21 Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros, remains uncertain after the Spaniard’s Italian Open ended earlier than expected when his chronically injured left foot began bothering him again.

“Right now, Carlos Alcaraz or Novak Djokovic,” Tsitsipas said when asked to pick the French Open favorite — without even mentioning Nadal’s name.

As for the women, the overwhelming favorite is Iga Swiatek, the top-ranked player from

Poland who defended the women’s title in Rome by overwhelming Ons Jabeur 6-2, 6-2 to extend her winning streak to 28 matches.

Swiatek was a surprise champion at the French Open in 2020 when she was ranked No. 54. Now the 20-year-old Polish player goes to Paris on a completely new level.

“I already know that I did some great stuff this season, so I feel like I can just play freely,” Swiatek said. “For sure the expectations around are higher, but I never had a problem to cut it off and not to think about it. Also I’m gaining experience at that.”

Swiatek has won five straight titles during her run.

“All these tournaments that I’ve won seem pretty surreal right now,” she said.

Djokovic lost a deciding-set tiebreaker to Alcaraz in the Madrid Open semifinals last weekend.

“That was a close, close match,” Djokovic said. “He deserved to win, but it was really one point that decided the winner. I was satisfied with the level that I was playing.”

Djokovic’s experience — he has won 20 Slams — might give him the edge on the favorites list for Paris. Especially since Alcaraz has never been past the quarterfinals of a major.

“Roland Garros is a marathon Grand Slam,” Tsitsipas said. “Every Grand Slam is a marathon Grand Slam, but specifically Roland Garros. It really takes the most out of you spiritually and physically when you’re out on the court. Clay-court (tennis) has this ability to really squeeze every single part of you.”

Djokovic, who was deported because of his un-vaccinated status ahead of the Australian Open, hadn’t won a tournament since raising the Paris Masters trophy in November.

• Watching the recent news from Ukraine is “very upsetting,” No. 2- ranked tennis player Daniil Medvedev said of the war that led Wimbledon organizers to ban him and other Russians from their tournament.

The U.S. Open champion spoke at the Geneva Open, where he returns to action after a five-week absence from the ATP Tour for surgery on a hernia injury.

“I had some time to follow what is happening, yeah, it’s very upsetting,” Medvedev said when asked if he could monitor the conflict in Ukraine more closely while not playing.

Medvedev previously said in February after Russia invaded Ukraine that he was “all for peace.”

Though most Olympic sports banned Russian teams and athletes from international competitions, tennis allowed players to continue as individuals and not representatives of their country.

Wimbledon organizers went further, announcing three weeks ago with support from the U.K. government a decision to impose a ban and “limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible.”

They said that could change “if circumstances change materially” in the war before the tournament begins June 27.

Medvedev said in Geneva “I don’t know if this decision is like 100% and it’s over” for him at Wimbledon, where he reached the round of 16 last year.

“If I can play, I’m going to be happy to play at Wimbledon. I love this tournament,” he said.

Appearing relaxed and smiling often in a 16-minute news conference speaking in English and French, Medvedev explained his outlook when asked about support he got from other players.

“Me, personally in life, I try to respect every opinion because every human life is different,” he said. “You show a tennis ball to 100 people I’m sure some of them are going to say it’s green, and not yellow.

“I think it’s yellow. If somebody tells me it’s green I’m not going to, you know, get in conflict with this person.”

Medvedev is top-seeded at the Geneva clay-court tournament and has a bye into the second round to face Richard Gasquet or John Millman.

The tournament will be his main preparation for the French Open starting Sunday. two goals down to edge Austria 3-2 at the ice hockey world championship.

Benjamin Nissner scored in the first period and Paul Huber added another early in the second to give Austria a 2-0 lead in the Group B game in Tampere, Finland. Kieffer Bellows started the comeback later in the second before Adam Gaudette tied it with a power-play goal in the final period to force overtime.

The U.S. outshot Austria 39-16 on the way to its second win in two games.

Canada followed suit in less dramatic fashion, cruising to a 6-1 win over Italy in Helsinki for its second victory of the tournament.

Sweden and Switzerland also made it two wins from two games.

Rasmus Asplund scored twice as the Swedes beat the Czechs 5-3 in Group B, while Denis Malgin had a goal and three assists for Switzerland to shut out Denmark 6-0 in Group A.

Also in Group A, France beat Kazakhstan 2-1.

Norway prevailed in a penalty shootout to defeat Britain 4-3 in Group B.