ROME: World No. 1 Novak Djokovic on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) battled past Italian Lorenzo Sonego to set up a clash with ninetime winner Rafael Nadal for the sixth time in the Italian Open final.

Defending champion Djokovic won 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2 in two hours and 44 minutes against the 33rd-ranked Italian after second seed Nadal earlier swept past American Reilly Opelka 6-4, 6-4.

Djokovic had earlier survived a three-set battle with Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in their raindelayed quarterfinal.

The five-time Rome champion had been trailing 6-4, 2-1 when the tie was halted overnight. But the 33-year-old came back to win 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 after more than threeand-a-quarter hours.

Djokovic and Nadal, who will be facing each other for the 57th time, last played in the 2020 French Open final, which the Spaniard won in straight sets.

The pair have won 14 of the last 16 Rome titles between them, while Nadal leads their headto-head in capital 3-2.

“Rafa and I had a little laugh today in the locker room after I won against Tsitsipas,” Djokovic revealed. “We kind of joked around that the ‘old guys are still not giving up.’ I’m really glad we’ve shown we’re not backing off from the Next Gen attacks.”

Nadal saved two match points to defeat Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in the third round and then ousted Madrid Open slayer Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals. finals in the

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