Novak Djokovic handed world No.1 Rafael Nadal a rare defeat on clay, a week ahead of the French Open, as he won the men's singles title at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome.
A set down, he produced two sets of high-quality tennis to secure a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win in two hours, 19 minutes.
Serena Williams earlier won the women's title in a final ruined by injury to her opponent Sara Errani.
Nadal drew first blood in the men's final when he broke in game three and, after consolidating his advantage, he extended it to 4-1 in Djokovic's next service game.
The Serb responded by smashing his racquet and although he got the first break back in the next game, Nadal was still serving for the set at 5-4 - and it was a game he took.
Djokovic broke at the first time of asking in the second set, taking the game with a cross-court forehand. And although he was sloppily broken back while serving at 3-1 up, the world No.2 produced an otherwise faultless set which he won 6-3 to force a decider.
He continued his momentum with an early break but Nadal recovered to level at 3-3, with both players stepping up in quality. It was Djokovic, though, who found an extra gear as he broke again to lead 4-3 and then turned the screw, his third break of the set and sixth of the match securing victory.
Djokovic hit 46 winners to Nadal's 15 and won 72% of points on his first serve opposed to 54 for the Spaniard.
It was Djokovic's 19th ATP Masters title and his fifth in the last six such events. Djokovic, speaking in Italian at the on-court presentation, said: "It's a special moment to win. I want to thank my team who are always close to me and give me tons of support throughout my career. None of this would be possible without them."
Earlier, Errani had recovered from a break down to bring the first set back on serve against Williams but required lengthy off-court treatment on her left hip and thigh.
Upon the resumption, Williams won seven straight games to comfortably seal the title 6-3, 6-0 after 72 minutes of play.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article