Luciano Darderi produced the biggest result of his career on the Rome evening when he defeated Rafael Jodar 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-0 to advance to the semifinals of the Masters 1000 event.

The 24-year-old Italian’s fourth-round win became a late-night saga after an earlier rain delay and then an unusual smoke stoppage. Play was halted when smoke from the Coppa Italia soccer final 500 meters away drifted into the stadium while Darderi was serving at 5-6, 0-15 in the first set. The players and the electronic line-calling system experienced visibility problems and the match was temporarily suspended.

Once play resumed, Darderi eked out the first set in a tiebreak. He then surrendered a 3-0 lead in the second and squandered a pair of match points with Jodar serving at 4-5, allowing the 19-year-old Spaniard to force a decider.

In the third set, Darderi held in the opening game and then broke again after a marathon 28-minute second game to lead 2-0. From that point he took control and closed out the victory a few minutes after 2 a.m.

The win moves Darderi into his 10th career ATP semifinal, but his first at Masters 1000 level; his previous nine semifinals had come at ATP 250 tournaments. He also becomes the 10th Italian to reach a Masters 1000 semifinal since the tier began in 1990.

“I think this is the best win of my career because of the crowd and everything here in Rome. It’s my first time in the semifinals—it’s a dream to play here,” Darderi said after the match.

“It was difficult because we started around 11, the court was really slow, and Rafa is an amazing player—so young, just 19 years old. I had my chances in the second set, but then he played just amazing.

“I just kept fighting, and I’m very happy about that.”

Awaiting the No. 18-seeded Darderi in the semifinals on Friday will be No. 23-seeded Casper Ruud, who earlier defeated No. 13-seeded Karen Khachanov 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 to reach his 10th Masters 1000 semifinal.

The Internazionali BNL d’Italia reaches its semifinal stage with compelling matchups that blend form, history and momentum.

Jannik Sinner arrives on a long run that began after a defining autumn in 2023 when he recorded first wins over Daniil Medvedev and Novak Djokovic and led Italy to its first Davis Cup in nearly 50 years. That stretch transformed him; wins over Sinner since the fall of 2023 carry more weight than earlier victories. Andrey Rublev stands between Sinner and a place in the last four. Rublev is 3-7 against Sinner, though two of those Rublev wins, in 2020 and 2022, came via retirement and can be viewed differently. His lone full victory came in a three-set match in Cincinnati in 2024. Sinner’s recent results include a dominant showing at Roland Garros last year (6-1, 6-3, 6-4) and a current streak of 26 straight wins. Rublev, fresh from a runner-up finish in Barcelona and with three wins in Rome, can pressure with heavy groundstrokes, but Sinner’s present form makes him the clear favorite. Winner: Sinner

Coco Gauff’s Rome week has been a test of endurance. The 2025 runner-up has survived three three-set matches, including tense comebacks and a late resistance against Mirra Andreeva. “It was a lot,” Gauff said after one of her wins earlier this week. Sorana Cirstea, enjoying a late-career surge and planning to retire at the end of 2026, arrives in excellent form: 27-7 on the year, a third-round upset of top seed Aryna Sabalenka and straight-set wins over Linda Noskova and Jelena Ostapenko. “I’m enjoying every single week,” Cirstea says of her last go-round on tour. “I’m coming from a place where I really have no pressure.” Cirstea is 0-3 against Gauff, and seeded well below her, but recent three-set encounters between them suggest this could be tight. Winner: Gauff

On the other side of the draw, Elina Svitolina earned her semifinal by rallying past Elena Rybakina in three hard-fought sets and must now face a newly confident Iga Swiatek. Swiatek leads their head-to-head 4-2 and is 2-0 on clay, including a Rome meeting five years ago that she won 6-2, 7-5. Svitolina has retooled her game in 2026, attacking more and compiling a 26-7 season with a title and a return to the Top 10; she also beat Swiatek in three sets at Indian Wells. Clay questions remain, but this promises to be a tactical and physical test.

Episode 20 of The Big T brings together a wide-ranging conversation: Elina Svitolina on tour life and parenthood, a deep look back at one of the great Federer–Nadal meetings in Rome, a player revolt over prize money, and listener mail from a concerned tennis mom.

“At the beginning of their rivalry, as you knew something special was happening—that was wild. Prakash Amritraj”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Rafa’s 6–7 (0), 7–6 (5), 6–4, 2–6, 7–6 (5) victory over Federer at the Foro Italico, a match in which the 19-year-old saved two championship points and won the final four points of the deciding tiebreaker. “It’s still burned into my mind, to be honest,” says Mark Petchey, “the forehand miss on match point for Roger.” The episode revisits that contest and its place in the Federer–Nadal rivalry.

“It’s such a precious thing that we have our daughter,” Svitolina, this week’s special guest, says on The Big T. Every day should be Mother’s Day. The conversation at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia covered family life while competing; Svitolina has won the event twice, in 2017 and 2018, and is back in the quarterfinals. Nearly a decade after she reached a career-high No. 3 ranking, Svitolina is still in the Top 10 and is only 31. There has been “nobody on the WTA Tour that has outworked you,” believes Petchey. “Maybe it’s about the food, you know, in the city itself,” Svitolina said with a smile. “I love Rome.” “I think learning to relax and learning to rest is something that is more difficult than working hard,” she says.

PLUS: a tennis mom writes in about her 14-year-old daughter who owns group classes but freezes in tournaments. The hosts also trade takes—Petchey BUYS Cam Norrie and SELLS Swiatek while debating Monfils and off-court pursuits.

It was reported that players threatened a boycott of Roland Garros over a dispute about prize money. Mark Petchey dug into the hot-button issue and discusses it with his co-hosts in great detail at the 12:45 mark of the show.

“This is a very layered subject, and it’s very important for me to caveat everything that we’re gonna say here, and particularly myself with, I just wanna set the table. I’ve got no skin in the game in terms of whether it’s for the tournaments or for the players or for the majors, or for the tours.

I just want to have a nice open discussion and let’s talk some facts. Mark Petchey”

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