Defending champion Darderi reaches Nordea Open final in Båstad
Luciano Darderi reached the Nordea Open final as the defending champion, while Adolfo Daniel Vallejo’s run made him the first Paraguayan in over two decades to reach an ATP Tour semi-final.
Luciano Darderi, 2026 | © FITP Foto
Italian Luciano Darderi, the seed No. 2, reached the Nordea Open final by beating Paraguayan Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 6-4, 6-7(11), 6-3 in the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon.
The world No. 18 needed an extended second-set tie-break before closing out the decider, having beaten Portuguese seed No. 5 Nuno Borges 7-6(9), 6-4 and German Daniel Altmaier 6-4, 6-4 in the rounds prior.
Vallejo, ranked No. 71, had beaten Italian Stefano Travaglia 7-6(5), 6-2, Dutch seed No. 6 Botic van de Zandschulp 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) and Spaniard Miguel Damas 6-3, 6-3 on his own run to the last four.
Darderi arrived in Båstad as the defending champion, having won the title without dropping a match in 2025 as part of a run that also included the Umag title the following week, and heads into Sunday off the back of a Santiago title earlier this year and a 23-15 season record, among the strongest on clay this year.
The win also moved him to 7-4 in career tour-level semi-finals, all of them on clay. Vallejo, appearing in his first ATP Tour quarter-final and semi-final in the same week, joined Victor Pecci, Francisco Gonzalez and Ramon Delgado as the only Paraguayans to reach a tour-level semi-final in the Open Era, and the first since Delgado at Costa do Sauipe in 2002.
Darderi will play the winner of Saturday’s second semi-final between top seed Andrey Rublev and Chilean seed No. 3 Alejandro Tabilo for the title on Sunday, chasing what would be back-to-back Bastad titles.
