Luciano Darderi is through to his first Masters 1000 semi-final at the age of 24 after seeing off Rafael Jodar in the early hours of Thursday morning at the Foro Italico.
The Italian didn’t take to the court until just before 11pm, after adverse weather delayed the match schedule. Darderi then had to cope with an unexpected delay during his showdown with rising star Jodar before producing a 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-0 win in a clash that didn’t end until 2am. It is the first time he has reached the last four of an ATP event above the 250 level.
However, the talking point of the match was the suspension of play during the closing stages of the opening set. Visibility at the venue was reduced due to smoke from fireworks set off after the Coppa Italia final, which took place at the neighbouring Stadio Olimpico. The smoke also briefly knocked out the tournament’s electronic line-calling system. In total, proceedings were halted for almost 20 minutes.
Darderi, who also knocked Alexander Zverev out of the tournament earlier this week, is projected to rise to a career ranking high of 16th next week as a result of his run in Rome. He becomes the eighth Italian man to reach the semi-finals of his home tournament in the Open Era.
“I think it’s the best win of my career because of the crowd and everything here in Rome. First time in the semi-finals, it’s a dream to play here,” Darderi told atptour.com. “Rafa is an amazing player. He’s so young, just 19 years old. I had my chance in the second set, then he played just amazing. But I kept fighting and I am very happy about that.”
Ellaborating further during an interview with Sky Sports Italy, Darderi admitted he had doubts about winning the match after dropping the second set before then winning the last six games. In the decider, he won 34 out of 54 points played without facing a break point.
“It was a real battle; I never thought I’d win after the second set. I won it through sheer physical strength,” he commented.
“He (Jodar) really surprised me. At first, I tried to play to his forehand, then I tried to hit a few low shots to change up the rhythm a bit. In the third set, I realised I had to be the one to push.”
Darderi will next play Casper Ruud, who also experienced a delay during his quarter-final match against Karen Khachanov. After taking the opening set, the Norwegian then had a two-hour, 25-minute delay due to the rain before returning to the court. Eventually, he secured a 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 win to become the first player to reach at least one Masters 1000 semi-final on clay in each season since the start of the decade.
“The quality I played with in the first and third sets is some of the best I have felt on court recently. I am not quite sure what happened in the second set but I let myself go and tried to focus on the third set and luckily that worked.” Ruud said afterwards.
The upcoming clash will be the first Tour-level meeting between Darderi and Ruud.
