Italian Open: Djokovic bags title

Top seed, Novak Djokovic, warmed up for the French Open with a comprehensive 6-4, 6-3 victory over Roger Federer to claim his fourth Italian Open title yesterday.
In the absence of seven-time champion, Rafael Nadal, ousted in the quarter-finals, the Serbian produced a near flawless performance on centre court to defend his title and hand Federer his fourth final defeat in Rome.
With Roland Garros a little more than a week away, Djokovic could emerge as the favourite to claim what is an elusive title in the French capital, especially in light of Nadal’s current woes on clay.
The Spaniard has won only one title on the surface this year, at Buenos Aires, and been beaten by Italian Fabio Fognini, Andy Murray, Djokovic and Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in recent tournaments.
Meanwhile, Djokovic has brought his game to boiling point this week to claim his fifth title of the season and take his head-to-head record over the Swiss ace to 21-18.
On this performance, Djokovic will be hard to beat at the French Open, where Nadal’s bid for a 10th title could be compounded by a lack of top seeding.
Djokovic is on a 37-match winning streak at the highest-level tournaments and after he took his winning streak this year to 22 matches, he said: “The fact I’ve managed to win that many matches in a row … gives me a reason to believe I can do it again”.