admin ROME: Djokovic earn his fifth Italian Open title on Monday after beating Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3 in the final, and restored his confidence heading into Roland Garros, which begins in six days.
“I did experience mentally some kind of ups and downs in the first four-five days after that happened. I was in shock,” Djokovic expressed.
“But I moved on and, really, I never had an issue in my life to move on from something. Regardless of how difficult it is I try to take the next day and hope for the best and move on. Having a tournament a week after that happened helped a lot … just because I really wanted to get on the court and just get whatever traces of that — if there’s any — out, and I think I had a really good week.”
The only real issue was his behaviour again. He got warnings from the chair umpire for smashing a racket in the quarterfinals and for foul language in the semifinals.
Still, Djokovic played better as 31-1 this year, with his only loss against Pablo Carreño Busta in the match where he was defaulted. He also passed childhood idol Pete Sampras for the second-most weeks at No. 1 with 287, and trails only Roger Federer’s 310 weeks in the top spot.
In the women’s final, Simona Halep won her first Rome title when 2019 champion Karolína Plíšková retired midway through their match with a left thigh injury.
Simona was leading 6-0, 2-1 when Plíšková stopped playing after just 31 minutes.
The only player to take a set off Djokovic this week was German qualifier Dominik Koepfer in the quarterfinals.
“I don’t think I played my best tennis, to be honest. I don’t want to be arrogant here, of course I’m very, very satisfied and pleased to win a title, but I know that I still have a couple of gears,” Djokovic said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to raise that level for the French, because that’s going to be necessary if I want to go deep in the tournament.
“This gives me even more confidence that is absolutely necessary for a grand slam.”
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