A day to enjoy at Foro Italica, a day for the home crowd - the machine Janik Siner continues to put down his rivals, and everything was made even better by Luciano Darderi who saved four match points and eliminated Alexander Zverev.
The world number one beat another Italian, Andrea Pellegrino, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals in Rome. It was the 31st consecutive win for the South Tyrolean at the 1.000 series.
In this way, he equaled Novak Djokovic's record, which he will break if he advances to the semifinals, and if he wins the Eternal City, he will become the only one, along with the legendary tennis player from Serbia, to triumph at all nine Masters.
Siner deserves another round of applause, but the match of the day was played by his Argentine-born compatriot. Darderi eliminated 2024 champion Zverev after it seemed he would have a hard time getting out of it - 1:6, 7:6 (10), 6:0.
It wasn't enough for Zverev to dominate the first set (6:1), and have a 5:3 lead in the second, serve for the match at 5:4, and have four match points in the tie-break... Darderi endured everything, won the tie-break (12:10), and then "smashed" the German in the third set (6:0).
Darderi qualified for the quarterfinals of the Masters 1.000 tournament for the first time, and in the sixth attempt registered his first victory against a rival from the Top 10.
He also became the first player besides Siner to beat Zverev at a Masters 1.000 since October and Shanghai. In the semi-finals, he will play against the super-talented Rafael Hodaro from Spain.
On the other hand, Siner will play against the winner of the Andrei Rublev - Nikoloz Basilashvili match, and Kasper Rud and Karen Khachanov have already qualified for the quarterfinals.
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