Nadal has won a record 10 titles in Rome, while Djokovic has claimed six — making it his most successful clay-court event.
The historic tournament was first held in Milan in 1930 before moving to the Foro Italico in the Italian capital in 1935.
Here, we look at the five players who have won the Italian Open men’s event since Nadal made his debut in 2005.
Nadal defeated six different opponents in his 10 Italian Open final triumphs: Guillermo Coria (2005), Roger Federer (2006, 2013), Fernando Gonzalez (2007), Djokovic (2009, 2012, 2019, 2021), David Ferrer (2010), and Alexander Zverev (2018).
The ‘King of Clay’ holds an incredible 70-9 (89%) record from his 19 appearances in Rome between his debut in 2005 and his likely last outing in 2024. He was also a runner-up in 2011 and 2014 and has only lost before the quarter-finals three times.
The Spaniard recently named his epic five-set victories over Coria and Federer in the respective 2005 and 2006 championship matches as his standout moments at the event.
“At the end is true that I won 10 times here,” Nadal said in a press conference in Rome. “But if you tell me my memories, I mean, for me I’m much more fresh the memories of the first two victories in five sets against Coria and against Roger than the other days.
