Novak Djokovic battles past Ruud to reach Italian Open final

Novak Djokovic was made to work onerous by Casper Ruud in blustery circumstances earlier than the world primary received previous the unseeded Norwegian 7-5 6-Three on Sunday to succeed in the Italian Open last. The Serbian needed to save two set factors within the first set earlier than discovering his groove to succeed in his 10th title conflict in Rome and stay on the right track to win his 36th ATP Masters 1000 crown and overtake Rafa Nadal on the all-time checklist.

Defending Rome champion Nadal crashed out of the match within the quarter-finals on Saturday after a straight-sets defeat by Diego Schwartzman.

“It was a tough two-setter today. It was over two hours for two sets,” stated Djokovic, who equalled Nadal’s tally of Masters 1000 titles by successful the Western & Southern Open final month.

“I definitely had to work hard for most of the points and it was really anybody’s game in the first set.

“It was probably the windiest day since we arrived in Rome and it was quite tough to handle that. But the second set was much better, I got used to it and started swinging through the ball better.”

Argentine Schwartzman takes on Canadian younger gun Denis Shapovalov within the second semi-final in a while Sunday, with the winner assembly Djokovic on Monday.

Djokovic began sluggishly and trailed 4-5 within the opening set however broke again and received the ultimate three video games to take the early benefit within the contest.

The Serb, who fired 12 aces within the match, served with significantly better accuracy within the second set and broke to go forward 3-2 earlier than closing out in model.