Rome, May 16

Maybe the new generation of tennis players isn’t quite so ready to end the eras of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Titles for Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev in the Monte Carlo Masters and Madrid Open, respectively, raised speculation again that the Big Three — including 39-year-old Roger Federer — was expiring. Well, again, not yet.

Djokovic, who turns 34 in a week, and Nadal, who turns 35 next month, won a total of three matches over younger players on Saturday to renew their record-setting rivalry in the Italian Open final, exactly two weeks before Roland Garros starts.

‘Laugh in locker room’

“Rafa and I had a little laugh today in the locker room after I won against Tsitsipas,” Djokovic said. “We kind of joked around about, you know, that the old guys are still not giving up. (Nadal) said somewhere a few days ago that Roger, him and I are old. But I disagree with him. We’re showing some different, fresh energy.”

“And I’m really glad that we’re showing that we’re not backing off on the Next Gen attacks,” Djokovic added.

They took vastly different paths to the final. Djokovic regained his cool after throwing his racquet off the court to beat Tsitsipas 4-6 7-5 7-5 in a gruelling, rain-delayed quarterfinal that began on Friday. Then the top-ranked Serb returned a few hours later against local favourite Lorenzo Sonego and wasted a late break and two match points in the second set of a 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-2 victory in his second match of the day. In all, Djokovic spent nearly five hours on court. Nadal kept his time on court to a minimum by ending the surprising clay-court run of big-serving American Reilly Opelka by 6-4, 6-4. — AP/PTI

Swiatek routs Pliskova in Italian Open final

Rome: If Iga Swiatek continues playing like this, she might have no problem defending her French Open title when the year’s second Grand Slam starts in two weeks. The 19-year-old Pole routed Karolina Pliskova 6-0 6-0 with what is known as a “double bagel” score in an Italian Open final that lasted just 46 minutes today. Swiatek lost just 13 points. ap/pti