Djokovic Claims Sixth Italian Open Title

Tennis - ATP Masters 1000 - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 15, 2022 Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates with the trophy after winning the final against Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
Tennis - ATP Masters 1000 - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 15, 2022 Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates with the trophy after winning the final against Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
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Djokovic Claims Sixth Italian Open Title

Tennis - ATP Masters 1000 - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 15, 2022 Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates with the trophy after winning the final against Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
Tennis - ATP Masters 1000 - Italian Open - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 15, 2022 Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates with the trophy after winning the final against Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

Novak Djokovic won his sixth Italian Open title on Sunday after a straight-sets victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5) in Rome, while Iga Swiatek won her fifth straight tournament by dispatching Ons Jabeur.

World number one Djokovic saw off underwhelming Monte Carlo Masters champion Tsitsipas to claim the last major tournament before Roland Garros gets underway later this month.

The 34-year-old won his first tournament of the season and confirmed his return to form after an opening few months of the season dominated by Covid-19 vaccination controversy.

"I've been building my form for the last couple of weeks and like the previous years I knew that my best shape on the clay is usually coming around Rome time," Djokovic said on the court.

"So it couldn't be a better time coming into Roland Garros with a title."

Sunday's clash was a rematch of the pair's final at last year's French Open final but had little of the drama of that five-set thriller won by the Serb in Paris.

Djokovic made surprisingly short work of Greece's Tsitsipas, who had also reached the semi-finals of last week's tournament in Madrid and still leads the men's tour for wins this season.

Ranked fifth in the world, Tsitsipas was taken apart in the first set and looked oddly reluctant to take on Djokovic, but put up more of a fight in the second right until he threw away the set after serving for the match, succumbing in the tie-break without much resistance.

An emotional Djokovic then spoke to the crowd in Italian, telling them that they were the reason he had such a good record there and revealing his son Stefan was playing in his first ever tennis tournament, AFP reported.

He later beamed with pride as he revealed Djokovic junior had claimed the honors at a small club competition back home in Serbia.

"My son actually won the tournament. It's a sunshine double today," Djokovic told reporters.

Iga Swiatek said she was going to treat Roland Garros as "any other tournament" after beating Jabeur 6-2, 6-2 to retain the women's title.

World number one Swiatek dropped to her knees in tears of joy after winning her 28th match in a row, and will be red-hot favorite in Paris.

"I'm going to treat it as any other tournament, I think it's going to be fine and I'm going to be able to keep it that way," said Swiatek.

"I already know that I did some great stuff this season, so I feel like I can just play freely and not think I have to win."

The 20-year-old Pole has dropped just one set in her last 20 matches and calmly dealt with Jabeur in a largely one-sided final in Rome.

Tunisia's Jabeur had made history last week after becoming the first Arab or African woman to win a WTA 1000 title but could not extend a career-best 11-match winning streak against her relentless opponent.

Jabeur had come into her first Rome final on a roasting Foro Italico center court on the back of two thrilling comeback wins over Daria Kasatkina and Maria Sakkari.

And another unlikely comeback bid looked to be on when, a set down, she had three break points in game seven of the second set to take it to 4-3, only to lose the game after wasting another break chance at deuce.

"When she doubled faulted at deuce I was like 'why didn't she do that a point or two points before?'," said Jabeur.

"I did everything I can, I hit every corner of the court."

Jabeur has moved up one place in the world ranking to sixth after reaching her second straight final and remains a force for the French Open.



Djokovic Shocked at US Open, Eliminated One Night after Alcaraz

Serbia's Novak Djokovic (L) greets Australia's Alexei Popyrin after his defeat during their men's singles third round match on day five of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
Serbia's Novak Djokovic (L) greets Australia's Alexei Popyrin after his defeat during their men's singles third round match on day five of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
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Djokovic Shocked at US Open, Eliminated One Night after Alcaraz

Serbia's Novak Djokovic (L) greets Australia's Alexei Popyrin after his defeat during their men's singles third round match on day five of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
Serbia's Novak Djokovic (L) greets Australia's Alexei Popyrin after his defeat during their men's singles third round match on day five of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

Novak Djokovic was shocked at the US Open one night after Carlos Alcaraz was, bowing out in the third round with a 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 loss to 28th-seeded Alexei Popyrin of Australia on Friday night.
“Just an awful match for me,” Djokovic said. “Tournaments like this happen.”
Not often for him, though. The No. 2-seeded Djokovic was trying to become the first player in tennis history with 25 Grand Slam singles titles. Instead, after knee surgery in June, he finishes a year without claiming at least one major championship for the first time since 2017. Before that, it hadn't happened since 2010, The Associated Press reported.
Also of note: 2024 now becomes the first season since 2002 in which none of the Big Three of men's tennis — Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — earned a Slam trophy.
The third-round exit equals Djokovic’s worst showing at Flushing Meadows; the only other occasions he was beaten that early at the US Open came in 2005 and 2006. The man who defeated Djokovic 18 years ago, International Tennis Hall of Fame member Lleyton Hewitt, is now Australia’s Davis Cup captain and was sitting in Popyrin’s guest box in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Djokovic, who is 37, has reached the final in Ashe 10 times, leaving with the title in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2023.
On Friday, though, he double-faulted 14 times and looked physically sluggish and emotionally flat, perhaps residual fatigue after collecting his first Olympic gold medal for Serbia by beating Alcaraz in the final at the Paris Games earlier in August.
“Obviously, it had an effect,” Djokovic said.
The No. 3-seeded Alcaraz entered the US Open as the tournament favorite having won the French Open and Wimbledon, and acknowledged his energy was lower than he realized after getting eliminated in New York by 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday night.
Djokovic then replaced Alcaraz as the money-line pick to take the men’s title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, but that status didn’t last long at all.
For the 25-year-old Popyrin, this represented a real breakthrough: He had been 0-3 against Djokovic and 0-6 in third-round matches at majors.
But the strong-serving Popyrin is playing as well as ever, coming off the biggest title of his career less than three weeks ago at a hard-court tournament in Montreal, where he picked up five wins against opponents ranked in the top 20.
Everything was working against Djokovic, who was not up to his usual high standards.
Popyrin was terrific at the net, going 10 for 10 on serve-and-volley approaches and 25 for 36 overall on points when he pushed forward. Djokovic, in contrast, only won the point on 19 of his 40 trips to the net, in part because Popyrin kept flipping passing shots by him.
Popyrin took big cuts with his powerful forehand, accumulating 22 of his 50 total winners with that shot.
And he broke Djokovic five times, including for a lead of 3-2 in the fourth. That game felt titanic, lasting more than 10 minutes and including four break chances for Popyrin, who converted the last with an inside-out forehand to close a 22-stroke exchange, then rocked back on his heels, clenched both fists and let out a roar. He took Djokovic’s next service game, too, to make it 5-2.
The first time Popyrin served for the match, he faltered, allowing Djokovic to break. The second time, Popyrin finished the deal, holding at love when Djokovic sent a forehand long.
Now Popyrin will try to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal by getting past No. 20 Frances Tiafoe, who advanced Friday with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 13 Ben Shelton in a matchup between two Americans.