The meeting lasted 2 hours 49 minutes and ended with a score of 7: 5, 1: 6, 6: 3.
Nadal served three times through, made one double fault and was able to win the game three times on serving the opponent from six attempts.
At the same time, Djokovic has five aces, four unforced errors and three realized break points out of eight.
Thus, Nadal became the 10-time champion of the tournament in Rome.
Earlier, Daria Kasatkina defeated Xie Shuwei and advanced to the second round of the tournament in Parma.