Unbelievable: Darderi saves four match points and bagels Zverev to knock out the world No. 3 in Rome
Luciano Darderi has produced the upset of the clay swing. The 24-year-old Italian, ranked No. 20 in the world, beat Alexander Zverev 1-6, 7-6(10), 6-0 in the round of 16 of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Tuesday, saving four match points in the second-set tie-break – three of them on Zverev’s own serve – to … Continued
Luciano Darderi, Rome 2026 | © Foto FITP
Luciano Darderi has produced the upset of the clay swing. The 24-year-old Italian, ranked No. 20 in the world, beat Alexander Zverev 1-6, 7-6(10), 6-0 in the round of 16 of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Tuesday, saving four match points in the second-set tie-break – three of them on Zverev’s own serve – to flip a match the German had appeared to control from the first ball.
“I don’t know [how he came back to win],” Darderi said on court after drying some tears. “It was a very tough match. At the beginning I wasn’t feeling very good physically. But in the second set I took some sugar.”
Zverev had won the first set 6-1 in 32 minutes. He led 5-3 in the second and served for the match at 5-4. . éI was really lucky because he gave me a lot of games at 5-3 in the second,” Darderi added. “He gave me a chance at 5-4 and I took it. The tiebreak was a lot of pressure for me and for him. It was really a fight mentally against me. This is the most important thing for today.”
Darderi’s greatest victory
Zverev held one match points at 6-5 in the tie-break and three others at 8-7, 9-8 and 10-9, before losing 12-10. Darderi forced a third set on the back of the home crowd at the Foro Italico and then produced the kind of collapse that becomes the highlight of someone else’s career: Zverev did not win a single game in the decider. Final score, 1-6, 7-6(10), 6-0. Match time, two hours and 28 minutes.
For Darderi, the win is the biggest of his career on every count. It is his first top-10 win in six attempts (he was 0-5 against the top ten before Tuesday). It is his first Masters 1000 quarter-final. It is the 15th ATP-level quarter-final of his career and the 14th on clay. He will pass Arthur Fils on the ATP rankings and move to No. 17, into the seeded bracket for Roland-Garros.
“I won because of the crowd”, Darderi said. “You can’t give up here. It’s amazing that the crowd helped me a lot on every point. I have to say thank you to everyone. It’s a dream to be in the quarterfinals. It’s the tournament of my life here. In Italy we have just one big tournament. To make the quarterfinals here on the first time it’s crazy.”
Zverev cracked
For Zverev, the loss is more than a result. The two-time Rome champion came into the match looking to reach the quarter-finals at all five Masters 1000 events of the 2026 season — a feat achieved only by Rafael Nadal (four times), Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Fernando Verdasco and Tomáš Berdych in the past thirty-five years. Jannik Sinner remains on track for it; Zverev no longer does.
The German’s “second-best player in the world right now” status, widely cited across the past week, has just been tested on a court he has won twice, and it has cracked at the moment of execution. “I think I should have won the match in two sets”, Zverev said. “That’s just the story from there. Of course, the third set went for him. He played amazing tennis. But should have won the match in two sets.” Zverev added that he played on the worst court of his career.
Darderi next plays Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old Spaniard who has been the men’s breakout story of the clay swing, after the rising star gave Learner Tien no chance, 6-1, 6-4.
