TENNIS

Novak Djokovic knows it isn’t model behavior when he loses his cool on the tennis court.

Yet he just can’t help himself.

Exactly two weeks after he was defaulted from the U.S. Open, and a day after he was warned by the chair umpire for breaking his racket in a fit of rage, Djokovic received an obscenity warning midway through a 7-5, 6-3 win over Casper Ruud in the Italian Open semifinals Sunday.

“I deserved the warning,” Djokovic said. “I didn’t say nice things in my language.

Djokovic improved to 30-1 this year. His only loss came when he was thrown out of the U.S. Open for unintentionally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball during his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreño Busta.

In Djokovic’s 10th Italian Open final – he has won four – he’ll face eighth-seeded Diego Schwartzman, who edged 12th-seeded Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4) in a match that lasted 3 hours, 15 minutes.

In the women’s final, top-seeded Simona Halep will face second-seeded Karolína Plíšková, the defending champion.

Halep reached her third Rome final by beating Garbiñe Muguruza 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to improve her record in tennis’ restart to 9-0. Plíšková defeated fellow Czech and last year’s French Open finalist Markéta Vondroušová 6-2, 6-4.

SOCCER

Sadio Mane scored twice as Liverpool exploited Chelsea’s frailties to win 2-0, a second successive triumph at the start of the Premier League title defense.

A tepid game swung in Liverpool’s favor after Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen was sent off at the end of the first half for hauling down Mane.

Mane headed in the first goal five minutes into the second half after an interchange between Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.

A blunder by Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga gifted Liverpool a second goal. Arrizabalaga stopped Fikayo Tomori’s back pass before trying to clear to Jorginho, but it was easily intercepted by Mane to slot into the net.

• Son Heung-min was set up four times by Harry Kane for his highest-scoring Premier League game as Tottenham won at Southampton, 5-2.

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