World No. 1 Novak Djokovic looks for his second consecutive clay court final as he takes on Argentine Diego Schwartzman at the Rome Masters.
Novak Djokovic may have just one French Open title to his name, but that is due almost exclusively to Rafael Nadal’s unprecedented dominance at the tournament. Make no mistake-Novak Djokovic is an excellent clay courter. In fact, since 2006, he’s only had a handful of seasons in which he won nothing on the dirt – most notably a miserable dry spell in 2017 and 2018, in which his ranking dropped to No. 22 in the world and he appeared (briefly) to be past his prime.
Of course, his three Grand Slam titles since last June have quite effectively silenced the critics. He had a particularly impressive showing in Melbourne this year, where he completely dominated Rafael Nadal in the final. He had a series of somewhat uncharacteristic losses during the spring hardcourt swing, but he righted the ship in Madrid last week, snagging the title from a red-hot Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Diego Schwartzman, the Argentine ranked 24 in the world has had a few good results this year, particularly at home in Buenos Aires, where he reached the final. But his European clay swing has been anything but impressive. He has only won a single main draw match in each of his French Open warm-up events. Schwartzman turned it around in Rome, however. The Argentine took out Kei Nishikori in the quarters to earn his spot opposite Djokovic in the semis.
Djokovic wasn’t quite as impressive against Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarters as he was in Madrid last week, but the Serb was still hitting well off the baseline (even if he donated more than a few errant dropshots to the DelPo cause). Del Potro was somewhat hobbled by a battered and bloody toe, but Djokovic stayed the course, after facing a couple of match points in the second set.
The Serb enjoys a 2-0 head-to-head against Schwartzman, though it should be noted that their last match was a strange 5-setter at Roland Garros back in 2017. Unfortunately for the Argentine, this is a different Djokovic than the one he faced in their last encounter. This should be a fairly routine win for the world No. 1.
Cheryl pick – Djokovic in 2
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