Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas reach Italian Open final

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This is what Novak needed before the French Open.

The top-ranked Serb will play for the Italian Open title on Saturday.

After missing a large portion of the season because he wasn't protected against the coronaviruses, Novak Djokovic will attempt to extend his winning streak against Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday's final.

The Cretan reached his first Rome final by defeating Alexander Zverev.

Only five men have won more than 1,000 games in their career, and only one of them, Ivan Lendl, has won more than one title.

After the match, the cake was written with the number 1000 on it.

I was looking forward to getting to 1,000 and I was watching Roger and Rafa celebrate.

His best previous result was the final of the smaller Serbia Open, where he was the defending champion, last month. He was beaten by Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals of the Madrid Open.

Against the first Norwegian to break into the top 10, the first Serbian to win a Grand Slam, he jumped out to a 5-1 lead with an array of shot-making.

On one point early in the match when the Serb was pushed wide of the doubles alley, he almost did a split as he responded with a backhand winner up the line with his racket just a few inches above the red clay court.

In the French Open final last year, he came back from two sets down to win.

They went the full three sets in the Rome quarterfinals last year, after they lost in the semifinals in the previous year.

I have looked back at those matches. There are things that didn't work for me after two sets. I was always pretty stubborn and didn't want to change. There is always one more match where I can do something different.

In three of his four matches this week, Tsitsipas has been pushed to three sets, including a win over Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals.