Two weeks after he was defaulted from the U.S. Open, and a day after he was warned by the chair umpire for breaking his racket in rage, Novak Djokovic got an obscenity warning during a 7-5, 6-3 win over Casper Ruud in the Italian Open semifinals Sunday in Rome.
The obscenity came in the third game of the second set, by which time Djokovic had a dialogue with the chair umpire over contested calls.
“I deserved the warning,” Djokovic said. “I didn’t say nice things in my language.
“I had a couple of disputes with the chair umpire with those calls. As I understood, I was three out of three right, but doesn’t matter. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s fine. It was kind of the heat of the battle.”
In Djokovic’s 10th Rome final Monday — he has won four — he’ll face eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman, who edged 12th-seeded Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4).
In the women’s final, top-seeded Simona Halep will face second-seeded Karolina Pliskova, the defending champion. Halep reached her third Rome final by beating Garbiñe Muguruza 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. She improved her record in tennis’ restart to 9-0. Pliskova defeated last year’s French Open finalist, Marketa Vondrousova, 6-2, 6-4.
• Two players in the qualifying rounds for the French Open tested positive for the coronavirus, the French Tennis Federation said, and three others have been in close contact with a coach who also tested positive.
The FFT said in a statement that all five players will isolate for a period of seven days, and none will participate in the qualifiers for the tournament that begins next Sunday.
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