Rome's Internazionali BNL d'Italia takes place between May 9-16 at Foro Italico, gathering the world's best players at the fourth Masters 1000 event of the season after Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid.
The last year's edition took place in September with no crowd due to the pandemic, and there will be restricted number of tennis lovers in the stands at Foro Italico next month. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are the main favorites for the title, with Daniil Medvedev, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev trying to spoil their plans. Roger Federer has withdrawn from Rome.
Since 2005, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have been the dominant figures in Rome, sharing 14 titles and losing titles only in 2016 and 2017 when Andy Murray and Alexander Zverev stole the spotlight. In the last year's final, world no. 1 Novak Djokovic claimed the fifth Rome crown, beating the first-time Masters 1000 finalist Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3 after an hour and 53 minutes.
Djokovic survived a tough opening set and sealed the deal in the second to secure the record-breaking 36th Masters 1000 title, leaving Rafael Nadal on 35. Thus, Novak became the oldest Rome champion, bouncing back from that US Open default to score the 31st victory from 32 matches in 2020! Djokovic got broken three breaks, two at the beginning of the encounter, and earned five return games to cross the finish line first and claim the second Masters 1000 title of the season after Cincinnati.
MAIN DRAW SINGLES
1 DJOKOVIC, Novak SRB 1
2 MEDVEDEV, Daniil RUS 2
3 NADAL, Rafael ESP 3
4 THIEM, Dominic AUT 4
5 TSITSIPAS, Stefanos GRE 5
6 ZVEREV, Alexander GER 6
7 RUBLEV, Andrey RUS 8
8 SCHWARTZMAN, Diego ARG 9
9 BERRETTINI, Matteo ITA 10
10 BAUTISTA AGUT, Roberto ESP 11
11 CARRENO BUSTA, Pablo ESP 12
12 SHAPOVALOV, Denis CAN 13
13 MONFILS, Gael FRA 14
14 GOFFIN, David BEL 15
15 HURKACZ, Hubert POL 16
16 DIMITROV, Grigor BUL 17
17 FOGNINI, Fabio ITA 18
18 WAWRINKA, Stan SUI 20
19 AUGER-ALIASSIME, Felix CAN 21
20 SINNER, Jannik ITA 22
21 KHACHANOV, Karen RUS 23
22 GARIN, Cristian CHI 24
23 DE MINAUR, Alex AUS 25
24 RUUD, Casper NOR 27
25 SONEGO, Lorenzo ITA 28
26 KARATSEV, Aslan RUS 29
27 FRITZ, Taylor USA 30
28 LAJOVIC, Dusan SRB 31
29 HUMBERT, Ugo FRA 32
30 EVANS, Daniel GBR 33
31 MANNARINO, Adrian FRA 34
32 PAIRE, Benoit FRA 35
33 BASILASHVILI, Nikoloz GEO 36
34 KRAJINOVIC, Filip SRB 37
35 ISNER, John USA 38
36 NISHIKORI, Kei JPN 39
37 FUCSOVICS, Marton HUN 40
38 STRUFF, Jan-Lennard GER 41
39 BUBLIK, Alexander KAZ 42
40 CILIC, Marin CRO 43
41 MILLMAN, John AUS 44
42 OPELKA, Reilly USA 45