Ruud beats Darderi to reach Italian Open final. Sinner-Medvedev suspended by rain
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9:54 AM on Friday, May 15
The Associated Press
ROME (AP) — Casper Ruud maintained his focus during a nearly two-hour rain delay to rout home player Luciano Darderi 6-1, 6-1 and reach the Italian Open final for the first time on Friday.
The match was suspended with Ruud leading 4-1 in the first set.
In Sunday’s final on the red clay of the Foro Italico, Ruud will face top-ranked Jannik Sinner or former No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.
Sinner led Medvedev 6-2, 5-7, 4-2 when their semifinal was suspended due to rain. The match will resume on Saturday.
Coco Gauff will play Elina Svitolina in the women’s final on Saturday.
Rome is the last big warmup before the French Open starts in nine days.
Ruud has reached two finals at Roland Garros, losing to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and Novak Djokovic in 2023.
Ruud was once ranked as high as No. 2. He’s now No. 25 but will return to the top 20 on Monday. He has dropped only one set in Rome this year — to Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals.
The 20th-ranked Darderi, who was born in Argentina to a family of Italian descent, saved four match points in a three-set win over Alexander Zverev in the fourth round then won another marathon match against Rafael Jodar in a quarterfinal that ended at 2 a.m.
After winning the first set easily, Sinner appeared fatigued as Medvedev stepped up his game and started running him around the court with drop shots and groundstrokes to the corners.
After several points, Sinner bent over in apparent exhaustion and leaned on his racket for support.
Sinner came back from a 3-0 deficit in the second only to get broken again in the final game and hand the set to Medvedev.
A bad bounce helped Sinner break Medvedev’s serve early in the third.
Sinner then had his right thigh treated by a trainer midway through the second set.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
