World number one Novak Djokovic won the men’s singles title at the Italian Open after defeating Diego Schwartzman of Argentina in straight sets, three weeks after completing his second Career Golden Masters at the Western & Southern Open.
On Monday eve – ning, Djokovic defeated Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3 to clinch a record-breaking 36th Masters 1000 crown, one more than Rafael Nadal.
Entering the summit clash, Schwartzman, 28, was attempting to join 2016 champion Andy Murray and 2017 winner Alexander Zverev as only the third player outside of Djokovic and Nadal to win the title in Rome since 2005.
Djokovic, who has started his 287th week at the number one position in the ATP Rankings, has gone past Pete Sampras (286 weeks) for second place in the all time list of most weeks at the numero uno spot.
Sampras, who was ranked number one for the first time on April 12, 1993, spent a total of 11 stints in top spot, with his longest run of 102 weeks between April 15, 1996 and March 29, 1998.