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Rome: Nadal, Swiatek crowned champions

  • Matt Trollope

Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek won the Italian Open singles titles after heavily contrasting finals on Sunday in Rome.

Nadal overcame arch-rival Novak Djokovic 7-5 1-6 6-3 in the duo’s 57th career meeting after Swiatek demolished Karolina Pliskova 6-0 6-0 in a mere 46 minutes. 

The Spanish veteran and the Polish teenager, the reigning Roland Garros champions, will next head to Paris to defend their titles with their confidence boosted after a stellar week in the Italian capital.

Incredibly, both Nadal and Swiatek saved two match points in their third-round victories before going on to hoist the trophies.

Nadal wins 10th Rome title

Since staring down defeat in that last-16 battle with Denis Shapovalov, Nadal elevated his game to brush Alexander Zverev and Reilly Opelka aside in straight sets.

He maintained that high level in the first set of the final against Djokovic, belting 21 winners – 15 on the forehand wing alone – and restricting his unforced error tally to 11 to take an early lead.

Djokovic had battled through gruelling quarterfinal and semifinal victories on the same day less than 24 hours earlier, but he pushed aside any fatigue he may have been feeling to complete a dominant second set. 

And the world No.1 earned two break points in the fifth game as he sought to close in on a sixth career title in Rome. 

Yet Nadal rarely loses on a clay court, and it was no different on Sunday; facing that second break point, Nadal then won 11 of the next 12 points to surge ahead 5-2. 

Djokovic saved a championship point to hold serve in the eighth game, but Nadal completed victory in the following game to extend his winning streak against the Serb on clay to five matches.

“It's amazing to have the trophy with me again, one more time here in Rome,” said Nadal, who has won five of his past eight meetings with Djokovic and closed the head-to-head gap to 28-29.

“I went through a lot of things during the week. Some positive, some great moments, some lucky moments, suffering moments. At the end I think I played a very solid week of tennis.

“I think I have been playing better and better with my forehand in the past couple of weeks. Especially on clay, it's give me confidence. I think my serve is working better, too.

"I played plenty of hours, so I feel good. I feel tired, but a very satisfying victory.”

Nadal’s victory earned the Spaniard a 36th career ATP Masters title, seeing him equal Djokovic at the top of that all-time list. 

And Rome becomes the fourth tournament at which he has won 10 or more titles; he has also achieved the feat at Roland Garros (13), Barcelona (12) and Monte Carlo (11), all on clay.

In 2021, Nadal has now won clay-court titles in Rome and Barcelona as well as reaching quarterfinals in Monte Carlo and Madrid, compiling a win-loss record of 14-2 on the surface heading into the French Open.

Swiatek dominant

Earlier on Sunday, Swiatek produced a breathtaking performance to win one of the most lopsided finals in the sport’s history.

She powered 17 winners past the hapless Pliskova, whose five winners for the match equalled Swiatek’s unforced error tally.

Pliskova, who sprayed 23 unforced errors, won just 13 points for the entire match, compared to Swiatek’s 51.

"I think she had amazing day and I had horrible day," said Pliskova, who held break points in the third game of the second set, and two game points on serve in the final game, but could not convert any of them.

"That's one of those combinations which I guess can happen. But I think she really made it extremely difficult for me to do any point and to play anything from my game. She was playing super fast. I thought she was just going for it."

Just four times in the past 28 years has a women’s tour-level final ended in a 6-0 6-0 scoreline. 

And it has not happened at a tournament this big since Steffi Graf destroyed Natalia Zvereva in the 1988 Roland Garros final, 33 years ago.

Swiatek found herself down 3-5, 0-40 in the first set of her second round win over Madison Keys, and then braved two match points to overcome Barbora Krejcikova in the last 16.

She did not drop a set for the rest of the week after that, defeating Elina Svitolina and Coco Gauff before trouncing Pliskova, who was appearing in her third straight Rome final.

It marks Swiatek’s third title from her past eight tournaments, a result improving her 2021 win-loss record to 19-5.

And she will make her top-10 debut on Monday, after entering Roland Garros in September ranked No.54. 

"From the beginning I felt that she may be a little bit nervous. I wanted to use that and actually play as many games with that vibe as I can. That's why it was pretty fast," Swiatek said.

"When my coach told me it was 6-0, 6-0, I was, like, Really? Isn't that a mistake? When I was on the breaks, I was visualising that I'm starting that match from the beginning every time. Actually, I did that so well that I didn't even know that it was 6-0 in the first set.

"At the beginning (of the tournament) it was really, really hard. I actually wasn't thinking that it's gonna be enough - I'm not talking about winning the tournament - to even do a good result.

"But day after day I was feeling a little bit better and I just focused on that. I think playing yesterday two matches actually ... gave me a lot of confidence."