Rome makes four: Ruud completes the big clay-court finals set with Darderi rout
Casper Ruud (No 13) crushed Luciano Darderi (No 18) 6-1, 6-1 in 66 minutes on Campo Centrale to reach his first Rome final and complete the clay-court Masters 1000 set — Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Rome and Roland-Garros. Sinner or Medvedev awaits on Sunday.
Casper Ruud, Rome 2026 | © Inside / PsNewz
Norwegian No. 13 seed Casper Ruud reached the Rome ATP Masters 1000 final for the first time with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Italian No. 18 seed Luciano Darderi in 66 minutes on Campo Centrale, the 27-year-old completing the full set of finals at the four biggest clay-court events in tennis — Monte-Carlo (2024), Madrid (2025), Rome (2026), of course Roland-Garros (2022, 2023) — and setting up Sunday’s title match in the most one-sided semi-final the Foro Italico has seen this fortnight.
He’s the thirteenth player to do so since the ATP was created in 1990 after Alex Corretja, Gustavo Kuerten, Albert Costa, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Guillermo Coria, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
Ruud was on top of the home favourite from the opening game and never let go. Darderi, who had finished his quarter-final against Rafael Jódar at two o’clock in the morning two nights earlier, had nothing left to push back with. The Norwegian’s forehand did most of the damage. He broke serve five times, conceded two games, one oo his own service games — the second of the first set, where he was broken leading 2-0, before reeling off the next five games to finish the job.
It is Ruud’s 19th career clay-court final, his fourth at ATP Masters 1000 level, and his 27th tour final overall. He has dropped only one set across the entire tournament, has won eight of his last nine matches, and will be back in the Top 20 next week regardless of Sunday’s result (17th).
Ruud : “experience”
Ruud was gracious afterwards about a deflated opponent. “It feels great. A bit sorry for Luciano today, playing at home and probably not with the most energy. It’s understandable. He finished at 2:30 the other night. What a match he had, and what a tournament he’s had. Luckily for me, I was done much earlier than him that day. I had more time to recover and get ready,” he said.
He also leaned on the experience gap. “It’s my 10th semi-final at the 1000s and it’s his first. So you try to use that experience to your advantage, and I think I did that well today. He was maybe a bit stressed and a bit nervous of the occasion. I tried to stay focused and in my own tunnel vision in a way. I think I did well. I was forcing a lot of errors out of his racquet.”
Sinner again ?
Looking towards Sunday, Ruud kept his options open before the Sinner – Medvedev semi-final. “It will be a tough match, no matter who it is. Either it will be a guy who cannot lose, it seems, or it will be Daniil, who won this tournament before. Both are great players and incredible athletes. If it’s Jannik, it will be another test for me, and hopefully I can get some sort of revenge from the last time we played. See if I can do better (he had won one game in quarter finals). No easy task, no matter who it is.”
He closed with a glance at the year so far. “I’m really proud and happy to be in the final here for the first time. It’s a good feeling after a bit of a troubled year. These things have really kick-started the season now. Let’s see if I can keep it going.”
