Still far from obeying the best representation of himself, still tense, confused, who knows if under the painful effects of the bizarre goodbye at the US Open, even more

Nole

than Djokovic, recently descended to earth, the Belgrade tennis player won for the fifth time in Rome and conquered his thirty-sixth Masters 1000, already one more than Rafael Nadal and the only leader on that list.

He beat Diego Schwartzman in the final by 7-5 and 6-3, in one hour and 53 minutes of a game in which it was enough for him to raise his tone in the final stage and react in time in the delicate moments, which were .

One more year, Djokovic will appear as a serious candidate for victory at Roland Garros, in that shortlist that Nadal leads by rights more than acquired and where Dominic Thiem, double finalist of the tournament and recent champion of the United States Open, appears very seriously.

The Serbian did not need to be at his best to continue his extraordinary streak in 2020. "I did not play my best tennis this week, but I found it when I needed it most, something that makes me feel very proud," he said recently concluded the He was also champion in 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015. It is the 81st title of his career, the fourth this season, after the Australian Open, Dubai and Cincinnati, the latter already in the middle of the pandemic.

Schwartzman is a countercultural tennis player: small in times of giants, skilled in the face of prevailing vigor, strategist and calculating in the face of snipers.

In the best week of his life, he gave Nadal the pleasure of winning for the first time in ten games, collecting praise and privilege spaces in the Argentine press.

A day later he became even stronger in a tough semi-final match against Denis Shapovalov.

He still had the most complicated task, to overcome, in his first final of a Masters 1000, Novak Djokovic, world number 1 and four-time champion, who broke in with the intimidating balance, 30 victories and a single defeat, by disqualification against Carreño in the United States Open, so far this course altered by Covid-19.

Bad start to 'Nole'

The game started well, on Monday cloudy and with episodes of light rain, which made the court heavy, not suitable for winning shots.

Djokovic, whose formidable balance of the course contrasts with the mild pace in his debut on clay, soon found himself with two lost services, forced to wake up if he did not want to complicate things a lot against an opponent who concedes little and came out fresh, without an apparent toll after the brutal semi-final match.

The Buenosairean exerted of Djokovic.

He was the one who commanded the rallies and showed off with the backhand, in addition to tuning with the left.

He was also the one who put more than his part to get the points, not caring to cross the track from end to end when necessary.

He had to activate the Balkan and wait for Schwartzman to feel the proximity of success in the first set.

He came back from the two breaks, added risk, created the first set ball in the tenth game and converted the fourth in the twelfth, in an erratic game by the Argentine.

At 33 years old, and with a brilliant history also written on land, Djokovic still finds it difficult to accept the easements of a surface alien to the nature of his game.

The exchanges become long for him, he sometimes rushes in search of alternative paths, of faster routes to score points.

But his talent on any stage is beyond question.

He reads the encounters well and, as he himself admitted, takes out the brush at the crucial moments.

He sniffed the blood in the seventh game of the second set, broke down and no longer took a step back, unleashing a victory that had taken on some urgency for him after the unfortunate episode at Flushing Meadows.

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Know more

  • Novak Djokovic

  • tennis

  • Roland Garros

TennisNadal does not give Carreño a break in his convincing return to the courts

US Open and finally, a 90s champion in New York

US Open 2020Novak Djokovic, disqualified from the US Open for hitting a linesman with a ball

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