{"id":668594,"date":"2026-05-14T09:16:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/668594\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T09:16:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:16:27","slug":"darderi-outlasts-jodar-after-smoke-rain-and-a-2-a-m-finish-to-reach-first-masters-1000-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/668594\/","title":{"rendered":"Darderi outlasts J\u00f3dar after smoke, rain and a 2 a.m. finish to reach first Masters 1000 semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italian No. 18 seed Luciano Darderi reached his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final and became the eighth Italian man in the Open Era to reach the Rome semi-finals with a 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-0<\/a> win over Spanish No. 32 seed Rafael J\u00f3dar in a three-hour, eight-minute quarter-final that finished at 2:02 a.m. on Campo Centrale.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The match was interrupted twice and refused to settle. Darderi raced to a 3-1 lead in the first set before J\u00f3dar found his range from the baseline and edged 6-5 \u2013 at which point fireworks from the Stadio Olimpico, 500 metres away, where Inter Milan had just beaten Lazio in the Coppa Italia final, drifted across the Foro Italico and forced a near-20-minute stoppage.<\/p>\n

The smoke clouded the court and briefly disabled the electronic line-calling system. When play resumed, Darderi held to force the tie-break, came back from 5-2 down, and took it 7-5.<\/p>\n

Match points saved<\/p>\n

J\u00f3dar\u2019s response was emphatic. Down 0-3 in the second and staring at a routine defeat, the 19-year-old, who is only the second teenager after Rafael Nadal (in 2005) to reach the Madrid and Rome quarter-finals in the same season, produced the best stretch of tennis in the match. He broke back for 2-3, saved two break points to hold at 3-3, and then at 4-5 saved two match points on his own serve \u2013 a forehand winner on the first, a Darderi backhand long on the second. He broke at 5-5 and served out the set to love.<\/p>\n

The heroics came at a cost. Darderi broke J\u00f3dar in a marathon second game of the decider that stretched to multiple deuces and five break points, then broke again at 0-4. The Italian, sipping espresso at changeovers, won eight of the last 10 points and closed out the bagel set (same as against Zverev!) as the Spaniard ran out of road. Darderi earned nine break points in the decider and converted three.<\/p>\n

The Italian had already saved four match points against No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev in the previous round, the win that opened this run. He will face No. 13 seed Casper Ruud, a 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 winner over Karen Khachanov earlier on Wednesday, in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBall by ball\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the best win of my career because of the crowd and everything here in Rome. First time in the semi-finals, it\u2019s a dream to play here,\u201d Darderi said. \u201cIt was difficult because we started around 11, the court was very slow. Rafa is an amazing player. He\u2019s so young, just 19 years old. I had my chances in the second set but then he played just amazing. I just kept fighting and I\u2019m very happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He returned to the second-set near-miss in a separate exchange. \u201cIt was really a battle. After the second set, I never thought I\u2019d win, but I just tried to take it game by game, ball by ball. I pushed a little bit more in the third set, and physically I won it there. We played really late, it was difficult at a certain point, but I\u2019m happy. The crowd helped me a lot today. It\u2019s really a dream to be in the semifinal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rome Masters 2026 ATP \u2022 Round of 16<\/p>\n

Sinner (1) d. Pellegrino (Q) 6-2, 6-3
Rublev (12) d. Basilashvili (Q) 3-6, 7-6(5) 6-2
Landaluce (LL) d. Medjedovic 7-5, 6-4
Medvedev (7) d. Tirante 6-3, 6-2
Ruud (23) d. Musetti (8) 6-3, 6-1
Khachanov (13) d. Prizmic (Q) 6-1, 7-6(2)
Jodar (32) d. Tien (19) 6-1, 6-4
Darderi (18) d. Zverev (2) 1-6, 7-6(10), 6-0<\/p>\n

Rome Masters 2026 ATP \u2014 Quarter-finals<\/p>\n

Sinner (1) vs Rublev (12) \u2014 Thursday
Landaluce (LL) vs Medvedev (7) \u2014 Thursday
Ruud (23) d. Khachanov (13) : 6-1, 1-6, 6-2
Darderi (18) d. Jodar (32) : 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian No. 18 seed Luciano Darderi reached his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final and became the eighth Italian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-668594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}