On finals Day at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, the big favourites in the men's and women's singles lost.
Halep 'rolls over' to Svitolina
In the women's, world number 4, Simona Halep lost to the Ukrainian 22 year old Elina Svitolina (pictured), who returns to the world top 10. Simona Halep was the better player out of the two in the first set, with her powerful wide forehand too strong for Svitolina. However, at the end of the first set, Halep rolled over onto her ankle, and after a few medical timeouts it was clear her injury was affecting her play.
Halep was struggling to stay in the match, but kept the second set close by clawing back a break and defending a set point valiantly. Her painstakingly close efforts were all for nothing. Once Svitolina served out the second set Halep's defense ceded and Svitolina won the match 6-4 5-7 1-6. "I didn't want to quit, but these things happen. I still have pain when I walk," Halep said in the press conference afterwards.
In-form Svitolina, who won three WTA titles so far this year in Taipei, Dubai and Istanbul, has been a little fortuitous in Rome. In the semi-finals her opponent, Garbiñe Muguruza, last year's #Roland Garros champion retired after only five games due to a neck injury. And in the final, her opponent Simona Halep injured her ankle in the first set.
When questioned, Svitolina said: "Yeah, I consider myself a lucky person overall. Not only because of this, but you know, I needed to be there today, I needed to put something on the court today. I mean, I cannot say that I didn't deserve to win the tournament, because I work every day, every single day, everyone does, and they are waiting for the moment to be there."
The injury to Roland Garros favourite Simona Halep throws open the competition for the #French Open title.
Halep declared she is "not the favourite anymore". And who can win it? "About 15 players" she replied. Svitolina agreed.
Djokovic fails to convince
On Saturday night you would've found it difficult to find someone who would bet against Novak Djokovic. He resumed his quarter final match with Juan-Martin Del Potro which he made light work of, and then, just a few hours later, defeated Dominic Theim with ease in a 6-1 6-0 thrashing in the semi-finals.
However, his opponent, first time finalist in a masters 1000 event, Alexander Zverev, at just 20 years old who is the youngest player in a decade to reach a final, failed to follow the script.
From the very start, the taller, quicker Zverev was using his powerful serve and hard ground strokes to push Djokovic to the limit. Djokovic had no reply, and in the match Zverev did not have to defend a break point. Djokovic received a violation for an audible obscenity, and finally, to top off a forgettable afternoon, he double faulted to hand Zverev match point.
Agassi to coach
Djokovic, who sacked his entire coaching staff at the start of the month, also announced in the press conference after his loss, that his new temporary coach will be Andre Agassi.
"I spoke to Andre the last couple weeks on the phone, and we decided to get together in Paris. So he's gonna be there. We'll see what the future brings. We are both excited to work together and see where it takes us. We don't have any long-term commitment. It's just us trying to get to know each other in Paris a little bit. He will not stay the whole tournament. He's gonna stay only to a certain time, and then we'll, you know, see after that what's gonna happen."
