Internationals, Djokovic beats Ruud 6-4 6-3. Final with Tsitsipas

Rocket start, the Norwegian holds up as long as he can, then Nole overflows easy and closes 6-4, 6-3

After Stefanos Tsitsipas, world number 1 Novak Djokovic also reaches the final at the Internazionali d’Italia, overcoming the Norwegian Casper Ruud by 6-4 6-3. It is the thousandth victory for the Serbian on the circuit, a decidedly easy victory, marked by a rocket start from Nole who flew ahead 4-0. Ruud, playing at very high levels, managed to recover one of the two breaks, but he did not prevent Nole from conquering the first fraction. In the second set Ruud held up to 3 all, then a final show by Nole who obtained the decisive break using the fourth break point of the seventh game and then closed at the first match point after an hour and 42 minutes of play.

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The fifth in Olympus

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Novak Djokovic is the fifth player in the Open Era to reach 1000 victories in official matches on the major circuit. Nole took his first win on 11 April 2004 when he made his Davis Cup debut overtaking Latvian Janis Skroderis 6-2 6-2 in the last day of the group 2 match between Serbia and Latvia. Today his overall balance becomes 1000 hits and 203 defeats. Better than him only four tennis players: Jimmy Connors is the tennis player to have won the most matches, 1274, second is Roger Federer at 1251, third Ivan Lendl at 1068 and fourth Rafael Nadal at 1051. When they reached one thousand Connors’ budget. was 1000 and 164 defeats, that of Lendl 1000-199, that of Nadal 1000-201 and that of Federer 1000-227. Of the five, Djokovic is the oldest to cross this milestone: he does it at 34 years and 11 months. The record is for Connors at 32 years and 11 days, Lendl at 32 years and 7 months, Federer at 33 years and 5 months and Nadal at 34 years and 5 months. Rafa took his 1000th victory on November 4, 2020 when he overtook the Spanish Feliciano Lopez for 4-6 7-6 6-4 at the debut in Paris-Bercy (he had started the series in Palma de Mallorca 2002 when he beat Ramon Delgado ). Federer, on the other hand, had reached a thousand on January 11, 2015 when he overtook Milos Raonic 6-4 6-7 6-4 in the Brisbane final. Lendl, on the other hand, had touched 1000 in Sydney in October 1992, beating Brett Steven 7-5 7-5. Finally Connors in August 1984 when in the Los Angeles quarters he overtook David Pate 7-5 6-2.

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The twelfth

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The final in Rome guarantees the Serbian to remain number 1 in the world and to start week 370 at the top of the ranking next Monday. For Djokovic, tomorrow’s match against Tsitsipas will be the 12th final played at the Foro Italico which he faces with a balance of 5 wins (2008 over Wawrinka, 2011 and 2014 over Nadal, 2015 over Federer and 2020 over Schwartzman) and 6 lost finals (2009 and 2012 against Nadal, 2016 against Murray, 2017 against Zverev, 2019 and 2021 again against Nadal). Twelve like the finals played by Rafa who, however, has an impressive balance of 10 titles and 2 lost finals.

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