WORLD number one Novak Djokovic overcame a sluggish start to lift his fifth Italian Open title Monday, defeating Argentine Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3 for a record 36th ATP Masters crown.

“It was a great week, a very challenging week,” Djokovic, who was playing his first event since being defaulted at the U.S. Open for inadvertently hitting a line judge with a ball, said on court. “I found my best tennis when I needed it most.”

“I did experience mentally some kind of ups and downs in the first four-five days after that happened. I was in shock,” Djokovic said of the default 15 days ago.

“But I moved on and, really, I never had an issue in my life to move on from something. Regardless how difficult it is I try to take the next day and hope for the best and move on. Having a tournament a week after that happened helped a lot ... just because I really wanted to get on the court and just get whatever traces of that — if there’s any — out, and I think I had a really good week.”

The only real issue for Djokovic this past week was his behavior again.

He received warnings from the chair umpire for smashing a racket in the quarterfinals and for foul language in the semifinals.

Still, Djokovic improved to 31-1 this year — with his only loss against Pablo Carreno Busta in the match where he was defaulted. He also passed childhood idol Pete Sampras for the second-most weeks at No. 1 with 287 — and trails only Roger Federer’s 310 weeks in the top spot.

In the women’s final, top-seeded Simona Halep won her first Rome title when 2019 champion Karolina Pliskova retired midway through their match with a left thigh injury.

Halep was leading 6-0, 2-1 when Pliskova stopped playing after just 31 minutes.

The only player to take a set off Djokovic last week was German qualifier Dominik Koepfer in the quarterfinals.

“I don’t think I played my best tennis, to be honest. I don’t want to be arrogant here — of course I’m very, very satisfied and pleased to win a title — but I know that I still have a couple of gears,” Djokovic said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to raise that level for the French, because that’s going to be necessary if I want to go deep in the tournament.

“This gives me even more confidence that is absolutely necessary for a Grand Slam.”

Against Schwartzman, who was playing his first Masters 1000 final, Djokovic recovered from a 3-0 deficit in the opening set and eventually wore down the steady Argentine to finish off the match in just under two hours — and just before it resumed raining.

With his 36th Masters 1000 title, Djokovic moved one ahead of Rafael Nadal atop the all-time list. Schwartzman had beaten nine-time Rome champion Nadal in the quarterfinals then edged Denis Shapovalov in a long three-setter in the semifinals. (SD-Agencies)