The number one in the world, Novak Djokovic, beat the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-0, 7-6 (5) this Sunday and became champion of the Rome Masters 1000his first title of the current season.
The Serbian, who had just lost in the semifinals of the Madrid Masters, definitively recovered his level of play a week before the start of the second Grand Slam of the season, Roland Garros, to be disputed on brick dust.
Djokovic, 34, started the year with trouble over his detention and deportation from Australia for his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, which later prevented him from participating in other competitions.
The Rome contest, which he won for the sixth time as in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2020, it was his fifth tournament of the year and it meant the 87th crowning of his professional career, with 38 Masters 1000 titles.
Starting next Sunday, the Serbian will participate in Roland Garros as the defending champion in seeks to match the record of 21 Grand Slams set this year by Spaniard Rafael Nadal with the conquest of the Us Open.
In 1 hour and 36 minutes, Djokovic beat Tsitsipas in the fourth final in the same number of disputed definitions, as had happened in Madrid 2019, Dubai 2020 and Roland Garros 2021.
The record between the two was 7-2 in favor of the number 1 in the world, whom the Greek could only beat in the Masters Canada 2018 and Shanghai 2019.
“I surprised myself in the first set, I had a planned strategy”, said the Serbian about the opening set in which he won in an overwhelming way with a 6-0.
