"Thanks to the tournament and the crowd for celebrating the milestone with me" - Djokovic on win 1000 in Rome

Novak Djokovic earned his 1,000th tour-level win on Saturday with a dominant semi-final victory over Casper Ruud at the Rome Masters.

The World No. 1 was at his unplayable best for much of a 6-4, 6-3 victory, downing the fifth seed with relative ease despite a strong performance from the Norwegian. He becomes the fifth man in the Open Era to reach the 1,000-wins milestone, joining Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer, Ivan Lendl and Rafael Nadal. He said:

"Thanks to the tournament and the crowd for celebrating the milestone with me. I've seen Roger and Rafa celebrate those milestones in the last couple of years and I was looking forward to get to that 1,000 myself. I'm really, really blessed and privileged to have that many victories on the Tour. It's been a long time, ever since I won my first match on the Tour. Hopefully I can keep going and many more victories to come."

On the match, Djokovic said:

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"I thought I played very well. Started fantastic, 4-0. Then I did slow down a bit. I did drop my level and I wasn't feeling that great on the court for about 15, 20 minutes. He used that, managed to get himself back in the first set. It was important to close it out in the 10th game, clinch the first set."

Up next for him is Tsitsipas and on that Djokovic added:

"Another final against him at one of the biggest tournaments we have in the world. He's definitely in form. The last few years he's been [one of the] top two, three clay-court players. In general, top two, three in the world. But especially on the clay court, winning Monte Carlo, always reaching the final stages of the biggest events on clay. I can expect a big battle on the court, but I'm ready for it."