ITALY. Rome: Rafael Nadal defeated the World No.1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic 7-5, 1-6 and 6-3 to win his 10th Italian Open on Sunday.
The match
Nadal was in a terrific form right from the beginning of the game and won the first set easily. In the second set, Djokovic fought back in style to defeat Rafael Nadal but the ‘King of Clay’ dominated the third set to eventually win the title. With this win, Nadal has equaled Djokovic’s record of 36 ATP Masters 1000 titles in his 12th Rome final.
The two champions of Tennis
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal met for the 57th time in the finals of Italian Open Tennis Tournament 2021. Currently ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player who won 18 Grand Slam men’s singles titles and 82 ATP singles titles overall. He has been No. 1 for a record total of 320 weeks. Nadal, popularly known as “The King of Clay,” is the only one to win French Open 11 times in tennis history and have 80 singles title including 17 Grand Slams.
The Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of Men’s Professional Tennis Circuits like the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour.
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The route to final
Earlier, Nadal reached the Italian Open Tennis Tournament final with a 6-4 6-4 win over Reilly Opelka and Novak Djokovic, defeated Lorenzo Sonego 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 in a tough and exciting match to reach the finals.
The Italian Open tennis tournament held in Rome is one of the most important clay tennis tournaments in the world. The event is also known as the “Rome Masters” for male edition, as well as the sponsored name “Internazionali BNL d’Italia“.
Nadal will now target the 14th French Open crown as the grand slam begins in a few days from now.
The women’s finals
In the women’s finals held on Sunday at the Italian Open tennis tournament, Iga Swiatek defeated Karolina Pliskova in a one-sided match to lift the trophy of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia 2021.
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