Casper Ruud, Luciano Darderi advance to Italian Open semis

Both Italian Open men's quarterfinal matches were delayed by varying circumstances on Wednesday before 23rd-seeded Casper Ruud and 18th-seeded Luciano Darderi advanced to the semifinals in Rome.

Ruud reached his fourth semifinal in the Italian capital by outlasting Russia's No. 13 Karen Khachanov, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2. Darderi prevailed in a match that stretched into the early-morning hours on Thursday, besting Spain's No. 32 Rafael Jodar, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-0.

Ruud, from Norway, played a brilliant first set, striking 12 winners to only five errors and led 6-1, 0-1 when the rains came and halted play for 2 hours, 25 minutes.

After the lengthy delay, it was Khachanov who flipped the match on its head, hitting 11 winners and making just one error while taking the second set.

But Ruud, who was the No. 2 player in the world after a 2022 loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the U.S. Open, bounced back and won the first four games of the third set. Khachanov broke back and held, but Ruud steadied, won his next service game at love and broke his opponent to climb back into the Top 20 in the ATP Live Rankings.

"I was happy with the win," Ruud said. "A little down period in the second after the rain, but I am proud of the first and third sets. The quality I played with in the first and third sets is some of the best I have felt on court recently."

Ruud finished with 30 winners, compared to 18 unforced errors, while Khachanov totaled 18 and 24, respectively. The Russian could not take advantage of a 76% first-serve efficiency as he won only 61% of those points.

Ruud lost 2020 and 2022 semifinals to Serbia's Novak Djokovic and dropped a 2023 semi to Denmark's Holger Rune. He is hoping the fourth time is a charm to reach the final on his favorite surface. Twelve of his 14 ATP titles have occurred on clay.

He will take on Darderi, who prevailed over Jodar, a 19-year old rising star, in 3 hours, 8 minutes. The match ended after 2 a.m. local time.

Jodar had a 6-5 first-set lead when the match was suspended for 20 minutes due to smoke, which infiltrated the stadium from fireworks set off from a nearby soccer match.

Upon resumption, Darderi held serve and captured the first set tiebreaker. After the momentum swung toward Jodar when he captured the final three games to win the second set, Darderi regrouped and won a marathon 26-point game on Jodar's serve in the second game of the final set.

Darderi converted 3 of 9 break points in the final set and will face Ruud in the quest to reach the final on his home soil.

"I think it's the best win of my career because of the crowd and everything here in Rome. First time in the semifinals, it's a dream to play here," Darderi said. "Rafa is an amazing player. He's so young, just 19 years old. I had my chance in the second set, then he played just amazing. But I kept fighting and I am very happy about that."

--Field Level Media