This content was published 2 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

The 1000^th career victory of Novak Djokovic came in the final match of the day at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia of Rome: a 6-4 6-3 victory over Casper Ruud gave the world number one a ticket for the final and a great career achievement.

“I was seeing Roger and Rafa celebrating those milestones and I was looking forward to get to 1000 myself”, said the Serb right at the end of the match while receiving a cake: “thanks to the tournament and the crowd for celebrating the milestone with me. I’m really, really blessed to have that many victories on the tour. It’s been a long time, ever since I played my first match, ever since I won my first match on the tour. Hopefully I can keep going”.

“I thought I played very well. I started fantastic, I mean, 4-Love. Then I did slow down a bit”, he commented talking about his performance tonight: “I did drop my level. I wasn’t feeling that great on the court I think for about 15 minutes. He used that to get himself back in the first set. It was important to close it out in the 10th game to clinch the first set. Second set, close couple of games at the beginning. But I always felt like I was in his service games, always had chances. Yeah, I thought I played really, really well in the last four games of the match. Hopefully I can take that level into tomorrow”.

And tomorrow, the final obstacle between him and the title there is Stefanos Tsitsipas: “It was the finals of Roland Garros. Again, another finals against him in one of the biggest tournaments we have in the world. He’s definitely in form. Last few years he’s been top two, three players in general, but top two, three on clay court, reaching the finals in the biggest events on clay. I can expect a big battle, but I’m ready for it”.

We are also ready for the final act of this year’s edition of the IBI as men will take on the court not before 4pm.