I did well in Rome, Rafa the man to bet on in Paris: Djokovic

Rome, September 22

Italian Open champion Novak Djokovic said getting back on court for a tournament so quickly after being disqualified at the US Open for striking a line judge with a ball helped him move on from the incident. The world No. 1 came in for heavy criticism at Flushing Meadows earlier this month and the Serb said he spent several days processing what had happened. He returned to tournament play in Rome and captured his 36th ATP Masters crown by beating Diego Schwartzman 7-5 6-3.

“I did experience mentally some ups and downs in the first four-five days after that happened,” Djokovic said. “Obviously I was in shock... But I moved on. I’ve never had an issue in my life to move on regardless of how difficult it is. Obviously, having a tournament a week after helped a lot because I really wanted to get on the court and get whatever trace of that out of the way.”

French challenge

Djokovic, who has won 31 of his 32 matches this year, said he would have to raise his game further to challenge for the title at the French Open, which begins on Sunday.

“I don’t think I played my best tennis to be honest, I don’t want to sound arrogant here. I know I still have a couple of gears,” he added. “Hopefully I’ll be able to raise that level for the French Open because that’s going to be necessary.”

Defending French Open champion Rafa Nadal was stunned by Schwartzman in the Rome quarterfinals, but Djokovic expected the Spaniard to be firing on all cylinders in Paris. “He has the highest chance of being in the final... If it’s Roland Garros, it’s Rafa you bet on,” he said. — Reuters

Djoker gets 10 euros more than Halep, fans fume

Organisers of the Italian Open and the tennis events came under fire on social media after it emerged that Rome men’s champion Novak Djokovic was paid 10 euros more than women’s winner Simona Halep. Djokovic received 205,200 euros for his triumph while Halep won 10 euros less for sealing the WTA Premier 5 title. But even as the Grand Slams have pushed for parity in prize money, some fans online vented their ire that while Halep’s prize came close to that of Djokovic, it frustratingly fell short. Last year, Rafa Nadal took home 958,055 euros as the men’s winner in Rome, almost double the prize money given to women’s winner Pliskova.