Fifteen days after he was defaulted from the US Open, Novak Djokovic has plenty to celebrate.
Djokovic beat Diego Schwartzman 7-5 6-3 to win his fifth Italian Open title; he passed childhood idol Pete Sampras for the second-most weeks at No.1 with 287 – trailing only Roger Federer’s 310 weeks in the top spot – and he re-asserted his dominance before the French Open starts in six days.
Djokovic improved to 31-1 this year – with his only loss against Pablo Carreno Busta in the fourth round of the US Open.
That, of course, was when Djokovic unintentionally hit a line judge in the throat with a ball in a fit of anger – resulting in him being thrown out.
Against Schwartzman, who was playing his first Masters 1000 final, Djokovic recovered from a 3-0 deficit in the opening set and eventually wore down the steady Argentine.
With his 36th Masters 1000 title, Djokovic moved one ahead of Nadal atop the all-time list.
Schwartzman had beaten nine-time Rome champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals then edged Denis Shapovalov in a long three-setter in the semifinals.
No player has beaten Nadal and Djokovic in the same tournament since 2016 when Juan Martin del Potro achieved the feat in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Having received warnings from the chair umpire in his previous two matches – for smashing a racket in the quarterfinals and for foul language in the semifinals – Djokovic was on better behaviour in the final.