Novak Djokovic vs Stefanos Tsitsipas Prediction: the Greek to Win a Set, the Serb - the Masters

In the final of the Rome Masters the World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas will meet. The men know each other well, they have crossed paths nine times and Novak has a huge advantage. Not surprisingly, the Serb is quoted as the favorite.

Once again, we were right, Novak Djokovic ended up in the finals after beating Kasper Ruud in the semifinals. He will play against another convenient opponent, Stefanos Tsitsipas. The match with Ruud lasted one hour and 43 minutes and the Serb won 6-4, 6-3. Djokovic fired once and made one double fault, winning 70% of first-serve points and 67% of second. On the receiving end, Djokovic won 40% of his first-serve points and 50% of his second. Before defeating Ruud, Djokovic knocked Karatsev, Wawrinka and Auger-Aliassime out of the tournament.

Tsitsipas has already won one Masters this season at Monte Carlo. In Barcelona, the Greek lost in the quarterfinals to Alcaraz. In Madrid, he failed in the semifinals falling to Zverev. In Rome, the Greek took revenge on the German in the semifinal in three sets, beating out Sinner, Khachanov, and Dimitrov before. The match against Alexander lasted two hours and 30 minutes, with Zverev winning the first set 6-4 but gave the next two 3-6, 3-6. Stefanos fired three times and made one fault, winning 69% of his first serves and 61% of his second. On the receiving end, Zverev won 30% of his first-serve points and 58% of his second.

He wasn’t giving me much, he made me work very hard for every single point, and I’m extremely proud of the way things turned around and how I was able to really read the game play better and understand what was working at the time. The heat hasn’t been easy. It has been pretty rough out here, but that’s what I like, I prefer good weather like this instead of being in the rain and not getting enough tennis – I see it as a good thing, there’s not even a single cloud out here, I guess it couldn’t get better. I see the bright side of it. I think I gave away the break too early in the second set. I think since then he started playing much better. I think my level went down a little bit. I returned much worse, I think, the next two sets than I did in the first set.

Tsitsipas after beating Zverev

Given the current tone of Novak Djokovic and the statistics of personal meetings between the Serb and the Greek, we have little doubt that Novak will win on Sunday. Still, in contrast to previous matches, we believe that the victory in the final will not be easy. Stefanos Tsitsipas will give the world number one a real fight, as he did twice at Roland Garros and here in Rome last year. 

• TelecomAsia Sport is looking for tipsters for Australian soccer (AFL). Contact jobs@telecomasia.net for more information.