ATP Masters Rome: Novak Djokovic as favorite for the all-time lead
Novak Djokovic is about to win his 36th title at an ATP Masters 1000 tournament. With a final win against Diego Schwartzman , the Serb could take the lead in the all-time leaderboard.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Sep 21, 2020, 07:33 am
With his hard-fought success against Casper Ruud in the semifinals in the first set, Novak Djokovic not only reached his tenth final in Rome, but also the 52nd in the ATP Masters 1000 series. Djokovic was the winner 35 times from the court, even against Diego Schwartzman he is what the Anglophile describes as a "prohibitive favorite". As a huge favorite, loosely translated.
The feed is initially from the clean record against final opponent Diego Schwartzman: Djokovic has won all four previous parties against the Argentine, including those in Rome a little more than a year ago. In addition, Schwartzman will certainly not go fresh into his first Masters 1000 final after his epic battle against Denis Shapovalov: Schwartzman and Shaopovalov fought each other for three and a half hours, and the Canadian could easily have left the court as the winner. Especially since Shapovalov had served on the match at 5: 4 in the third set.
Djokovic against Koepfer over three sets
Novak Djokovic, on the other hand, only had problems with Casper Ruud in the first set, fending off two set balls from the Norwegian. The way to the final was surprisingly easy in terms of the strength of the opponents for a tournament of this category, which Djokovic is of course not to blame. The industry leader simply played away what the draw and the course of the tournament put in his way - and that was with Salvatore Caruso (ATP number 87), Filip Krajinovic (29), Dominik Koepfer (97) and Ruud (34) now sometimes not really big capacitors.
And in the final, Rafael Nadal should have waited for the reissue of the 2019 final. But the Spaniard fell victim to Diego Schwartzman in the quarter-finals, in the tenth game for the first time. Nadal and Djokovic currently share the lead in the eternal best list of the 1000s, Djokovic could also take the lead in this record with his sixth success in Rome. In addition, Novak Djokovic has won each of the nine events in this series at least twice - no other player has even managed it once.
Schwartzman in the footsteps of del Potro?
For Diego Schwartzman, however, it's about his greatest career success. The man from Buenos Aires has won three titles in his career so far (Djokovic holds 80), one in the 500 category (Rio de Janeiro 2018), plus two 250 (Istanbul 2016 and Los Cabos 2019). In the world rankings, Schwartzman's entry into the final in Rome, who was eliminated last week against Laslo Djere in Kitzbühel, will definitely have a positive effect. He has already won two places and is now safely back in 13th place, with a triumph against Novak Djokovic Diego Schwartzman even made it into the top ten for the first time.
Juan Martin del Potro was a regular there for years. DelPo is also the last Argentine to win an ATP Masters 1000 tournament: 2018 in Indian Wells in the final against Roger Federer.