{"id":810699,"date":"2026-07-18T19:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T19:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/810699\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T19:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T19:32:12","slug":"rublev-to-face-defending-champ-darderi-for-bastad-title-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/810699\/","title":{"rendered":"Rublev to Face Defending Champ Darderi for Bastad Title \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Andrey Rublev booked his 30th ATP final and 100th career clay-court win on Saturday in Bastad.<\/p>\n<p>It will be a battle of former champions for the title Sunday in Bastad.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>2023 champion Andrey Rublev defeated Alejandro Tabilo to set a clash with defending champion Luciano Darderi on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tennisexpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\" alt=\"tennis express pro player gear\" class=\"wp-image-54451\"  data-\/><\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\n<p>Rublev notched his 100th career clay court win, converting his fourth match point to take down the Chilean southpaw, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. The Russian moves into his 30th career ATP final and second of 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was made to work for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tabilo hit back in the second set, breaking Rublev in the final game of the set just after the top seed had fought to get back on serve by converting his third break point for 4-5.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"adslot inline-ad\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tennisexpress.com\/womens-racquets?utm_source=tennisnow&amp;utm_medium=article_ad&amp;utm_campaign=inarticle_racquets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tennis Express<\/p>\n<p>Grass-Court RacquetsThe frames the pros swing<\/p>\n<p>Shop racquets \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rublev righted the ship in the third set with a critical break in the seventh game. He then saved a break point in the next game to hold for 5-3.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tabilo saved two match points while serving at 3-5, and another with Rublev saving for the match but he could not hold Rublev off in the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel great,\u201d Rublev said. \u201cI feel happy to be back in the final in Bastad \u2013 I\u2019m grateful for the opportunity to play in another final here.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rublev converted three of 13 break points in the match as he won 63 percent of points against Tabilo\u2019s second serve. The Russian fired 21 forehand winners in the two hour and 10 minute contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day defending champion Darderi improved to 8-0 lifetime in Bastad with a 6-4, 6-7(11), 6-3 win over Adolfo Daniel Vallejo. He is the first man to reach back-to-back finals in the Swedish seaside town since Robin Soderling in 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>18th-ranked Darderi is into his seventh career final (5-1) \u2013 all of them have come on clay. The Italian tied Alexander Zverev for the lead in ATP clay court wins in 2026 (20-9).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rublev, ranked 16, will bid for his 18th ATP title.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"adslot inline-ad\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tennisexpress.com\/womens-tennis-apparel?utm_source=tennisnow&amp;utm_medium=article_ad&amp;utm_campaign=inarticle_apparel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tennis Express<\/p>\n<p>Wimbledon WhitesOn-court apparel, shipped fast<\/p>\n<p>Shop apparel \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Chris Oddo. Chris Oddo is a freelance sportswriter, podcaster, blogger and social media marker who is a lead contributor to Tennisnow.com. He also writes for USOpen.org, Rolandgarros.com, BNPParibasOpen.com, TennisTV.com, WTAtennis.com and the official US Open program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrey Rublev booked his 30th ATP final and 100th career clay-court win on Saturday in Bastad. It will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-810699","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\/810699","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=810699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}