Exactly 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, Djokovic received an obscenity warning midway through a 7-5, 6-3 win over Casper Ruud
Muguruza struggled with her serve and double faulted on the final two points of the 2 hour, 16-minute match.
Nadal’s first tournament back ended with a 6-2, 7-5 loss to Diego Schwartzman while Djokovic earned a verbal warning for smashing his racquet through a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over Dominik Koepfer.
When Djokovic was broken at love to even the second set at 3-3, he slammed his racket to the red clay in anger.
The unseeded Indo-Canadian pair fought hard before going down 6-4 5-7 7-10 to Chardy-Martin pair in the tie-breaker late on Friday.
On Friday, Djokovic defeated his fellow Serb Filip Krajinovic 7-6 (7), 6-3 to enter the last eight of the tournament for the 14th straight year.
It would take Djokovic quite a bit more work before he finally closed out the first set in 1 hour, 28 minutes and went on to finish off a 7-6 (7), 6-3 victory for a spot in the Italian Open quarterfinals for the 14th straight year on Friday.
Halep, who is actually on an 11-0 run overall stretching back to February, recovered an early break in the opening set and then overpowered her 29th-ranked opponent the rest of the way.
The tournament, which features nine-time champion Rafael Nadal and top-ranked Novak Djokovic, has so far been played without fans because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The French Open, which was originally scheduled to start in May but had to be moved back because of the outbreak of novel coronavirus, is slated to be played from September 27 to October 11.
Naomi Osaka, who won the US Open 2020 singles title last week, has withdrawn from the French Open citing troubles with hamstring.
Although the 60th-ranked Pouille has resumed training he does not feel fit enough to play competitively at Roland Garros. The clay-court major begins in 10 days in Paris.
Stuns top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia in a hard-fought second-round encounter at the ATP Masters 1000 event.
The Billie Jean King Cup will become the first major global team competition to be named after a woman, the International Tennis Federation said Thursday.
On Wednesday, Djokovic dispatched Italian wild card entry Salvatore Caruso 6-3, 6-2 to continue with his quest for a fifth Rome title and set up a third-round against countryman Filip Krajinovic.
The top-ranked Serb was mostly courteous with the chair umpire during a 6-3, 6-2 win over local wild-card entry Salvatore Caruso in his opening match at the Italian Open
Out-hitting Wawrinka’s famed backhand with a one-handed version of his own, the 18-year-old qualifier moved the three-time Grand Slam champion from corner to corner and displayed an all-court game that belied his years.
The 87th-ranked Caruso defeated American qualifier Tennys Sandgren 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) Tuesday in the opening round at the empty Foro Italico
Last month, Murray was also given a wild card for the US Open where he reached the second round in his first Grand Slam after hip surgery last year.
Osaka on Sunday defeated Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 to win the third Grand Slam of her career and courtesy her victory; she has climbed six spots to move to the third position in the latest WTA rankings.
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