Andy Murray celebrated his birthday in style by beating his nemesis Novak Djokovic on clay for the first time to win his maiden Internazionali d’Italia title.
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As well as a dogged effort from sixth seed Nishikori, Djokovic overcame an injury during the contest, having had a medical timeout for a cut on his left ankle after the first game.
On the changeover, Djokovic had a trainer come out and clean the bruise but it took him until the second set to really regain his footing.
Novak Djokovic defeated Kei Nishikori in a match that lasted just over three hours.
Murray’s title win in just over 90 minutes was his third on clay and second at the Masters 1000 level after winning Madrid a year ago over Rafael Nadal.
“Murray has never reached the final in Paris, but he has been a beaten semi-finalist on three occasions and Djokovic believes the Brit’s past experiences will stand him in good stead at this year’s tournament”.
The Japanese star pushed the world number one all the way, but Djokovic’s class shone through once again as he prevailed 2-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5), setting up yet another final against world number two Andy Murray.
The top seed vented his fury when Murray saved another two break points in his next service game and the Olympic champion went 3-2 up when he broke with a simple volley at the net.
The American swept past 21-year-old compatriot Madison Keys 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 to claim her fourth Italian Open victory on Sunday, first title of the season and 70th of her career.
But facing world number two Murray was a step too far for the 22-year-old, who had 25 unforced errors in a one-sided encounter that was interrupted early in the second set. I had so many chances in the first set.
“I’m going to definitely go in there and I feel more calm and I don’t feel stress to, like, have to win”, she said. “Previous year I certainly didn’t think I’d be winning a clay-court Masters Series multiple times”.
The World No. 1 pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis added another feather to their cap by defeating Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova in a hard-fought women’s doubles final at the Rome Masters on Sunday.
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“I can certainly play well on all the surfaces”. At a press conference after the match, Djokovic railed against Steiner for refusing to stop play for a few minutes in order to clean up the court, which had gotten muddy over the course of the drizzly day.
