Novak Djokovic (36, Serbia, world No. 1), who returned from injury, will challenge for a second consecutive victory at the Men’s Professional Tennis (ATP) Tour Italy Rome Open (Internazionali BNL d’Italia).
According to the ATP website, Djokovic announced that he had a practice match with Yannick Thinner (22, Italy, world No. 8) at Lopo Italico in Rome, Italy, where the tournament will be held on the 9th (Korean time).
Djokovic was eliminated in the quarterfinals at the Sprska Open last month in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Sprska Republic. “The condition of his right elbow is not ideal,” he said ahead of the event. Eventually, he gave up participating in the ATP Tour Masters 1000 Series Madrid Open.
After winning the Australian Open, his first Grand Slam event of the year, Djokovic recaptured the world number one ranking. However, he could not participate in the Sunshine Double (BNP Paribas Open, Miami Open) held in the United States in March due to the problem of not being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
In addition, in April, when the clay court season was in full swing, he fell in the round of 16 at the Monte Carlo Masters and suffered defeat in the quarterfinals at the Sprurska Open. Here, an uninvited guest called a right elbow injury came over.
While Djokovic faltered, Carlos Alcaras 메이저놀이터(20, Spain, world No. 2) won his 4th win of the season. Having won his first win of the season at the Argentine Open in February, he has since conquered the BNP Paribas Open, the Barcelona Open and the Madrid Open held in his home country.
Having won the Madrid Open, Alcaras has reserved the world No. 1 spot. After the Rome Open, he overtook Djokovic to become world number one.
At the Rome Open singles, Djokovic was seeded No. 1 and Alkaras was seeded No. 2. They will meet in the match finals.
The Rome Open is the prelude to the Roland Garros French Open, which opens at the end of this month. Rafael Nadal (37, Spain, 14th in the world rankings), ‘soil god’, is in a state of uncertainty even from participating in the French Open due to an injury. Djokovic and Alkaras, the leading French Open favorites, will compete for pride at the Rome Open.
Djokovic, the top seed, will play his first match (round of 64) on the 12th with the winner of Luca Van Assache (19, France, world No. 85) and Thomas Martin Echeverri (24, Argentina, world No. 61) facing each other.
The second seed, Alcaras, faces the winner of the match between Albert Ramos and Vinolas (35, Spain, world No. 72) and Francesco Passaro (22, Italy, world No. 126).
Djokovic, the ‘defending champion’, will challenge for his 7th win in this event. In addition, World No. 3 Danil Medvedev (27, Russia), No. 4 Kasper Ruud (24, Norway) and No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas (24, Greece) are also aiming for the top.
Meanwhile, TV channels SPOTV and SPOTV ON, and sports OTT service SPOTV NOW broadcast live satellites of major matches of the ATP Tour Italy Rome Open. It will also be broadcast live on SPOTV ASIA (Spotv Asia). Sporty Asia is a channel broadcasting to 13 countries in Southeast Asia, and broadcasts tennis grand slam tournaments such as Wimbledon and US Open, men’s professional tennis ATP tour, motorcycle racing competition MotoGP (GP), WTT (World Table Tennis) table tennis competition, and BWF ( World Badminton Federation) Badminton competition, International Sports Climbing (IFSC), Sports Climbing World Cup, etc. are provided.