Novak Djokovic, Simona Halep win 2020 Italian Open

Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Simona Halep of Romania, each won the 2020 Italian Open on Monday. Djokovic defeated Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 7-5, 6-3 in the men’s final, while Simona Halep of Romania defeated Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 2-1 in the women’s final.

For Djokovic, he extended his record for the most ATP Masters 1000 men’s singles titles all-time to 36. It was also his fifth Italian Open all-time as he previously won in 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2015. The first Italian Open win for Djokovic came over Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, and the last three came over the clay-court king Rafael Nadal of Spain. Nadal, who has won the Italian Open a record nine times, was beaten by Schwartzman in the quarterfinals in Rome on Saturday by a score of 6-2, 7-5. It was the first time in 10 matches head to head, that Schwartzman had beaten Nadal.

Halep meanwhile won her first Italian Open of her career. It a battle of the top two seeds in the tournament (Halep was first and Pliskova was second), the two-time major champion only needed just over half an hour to claim the clay court title, and the most important clay court tournament in preparation for the French Open, which starts Sunday.

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Pliskova meanwhile had to withdraw due to ailments at her lower back and upper leg. She began the match with her upper thigh bandaged. It will now be interesting to see if these injuries will impact Pliskova’s status for the French Open. Despite being ranked second in the Italian Open, Pliskova has never won a major title.

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