Novak Djokovic surges past Casper Ruud for his 1000th career win to set up Italian Open final against Stefanos Tsitsipas

Novak Djokovic recorded his 1000th career win with a convincing 6-4 6-3 victory over Casper Ruud to reach the Italian Open final. Djokovic dominated from the baseline against the Norwegian fifth seed in their fourth meeting on the ATP Tour and wrapped up the milestone win in one hour and 41 minutes. Ad/> The world No.

1, who becomes the fifth man in the Open era to earn 1000 wins, will play Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday's final after the Greek beat world No.3 Alexander Zverev in three sets earlier on Saturday. ATP RomeDjokovic seals 999th career win in clay classic against FAA, Tsitsipas to play ZverevA DAY AGO The 34-year-old joins Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in reaching the 1000 win landmark. «I thought I played really well in the last four games of the match,» the 20-time Grand Slam winner said in his on-court interview.

«Hopefully I can take that level into tomorrow's final. »Thanks to the tournament and the crowd for celebrating the milestone [1000 wins] with me. «I was seeing Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal celebrating also those milestones in the last couple of years and I was looking to get to that 1000 myself.

I'm really blessed and privileged to have that many victories on the tour. »It's been a long time since I won my first match on the tour. Hopefully I can keep going and that there will be many more victories to come." Looking ahead to Sunday's final against Tsitsipas, Djokovic said: «He's definitely in form.