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Top seeds Halep and Djokovic win in Rome

  • Matt Trollope

Simona Halep won her first Rome title and Novak Djokovic claimed his fifth as the top seeds ruled in the Italian capital.

Djokovic beat Diego Schwartzman in the men’s final, after Halep had earlier led defending champion Karolina Pliskova 6-0 2-1 when the Czech retired due to a leg injury.

Both Halep and Djokovic have built impressive 2020 win-loss records and now head to the French Open, where they are both former champions.

Djokovic sets Masters record

Djokovic was seeking his first title in Rome since 2015; he had since lost finals in 2016 to Andy Murray, in 2017 to Alexander Zverev and in 2019 to Rafael Nadal.

This time, he came up against Schwartzman, a player who had battled for more than three hours to overcome Denis Shapovalov less than 24 hours earlier, and who had never beaten Djokovic.

The Serb made a slow start, dropping serve twice to fall behind 3-0. But, increasingly the aggressor, he turned the match around to complete a 7-5 6-3 victory.

He hit 29 winners – 18 off the forehand alone – to 17 from Schwartzman, who falls to 0-5 in their head-to-head series.

The victory earned Djokovic his 36th ATP Masters title, putting him one ahead of Rafael Nadal on the all-time list.

“I think I had a really good week. I don’t think I played my best tennis, to be honest,” Djokovic said.

“I don’t want to sound arrogant here. I’m of course very, very satisfied and pleased and happy to win a title. I know that I still have couple of gears, and hopefully I’ll be able to raise that level for French, because that’s going to be necessary if I want to go deep in the tournament.”

Djokovic has now won 34 of his past 35 matches dating back to last year’s Davis Cup Finals, and is an eye-popping 31-1 in 2020.

Third straight title for Halep

It was a case of third time lucky in Rome for Halep, who was playing for her first title at the tournament after falling in the 2017 and 2018 finals to Elina Svitolina.

"I've finally won it. I love this tournament, and I play well here almost every year,” Halep said. “I started my rise up the rankings at this tournament in 2013, so I've always dreamed of having this title. I'm really happy that it happened today."

Standing in her way on Monday was 2019 champion Pliskova, but it was immediately clear the Czech was physically compromised.

Playing with her left thigh wrapped, she struggled to move around the court and in response tried to keep points short – but sprayed far too many errors.

Halep, rock-solid at the other end of the court, took the opening set in 20 minutes before Pliskova made the decision three games later she could not continue.

“I wanted to try, I wanted to fight, but, unfortunately, wasn’t able to continue and be competitive. I was forced to retire from the match due to injury for the first time in my professional career and it’s hard to deal with it,” said Pliskova, who was visibly emotional in her courtside seat afterward.

Yet even if fully healthy, she may have struggled to contain Halep, the world's premier clay-courter who dropped only one set all week in Rome.

The Romanian has not lost since the Australian Open semifinals back in January; she has gone on to hoist trophies in Dubai, Prague and Rome and has now won 14 straight matches.

Halep, ranked No.2, improved to 20-2 in 2020 and establishes herself as the favourite for Roland Garros, where she won her first Grand Slam title in 2018.