Luciano Darderi gives himself another prestigious challenge

Luciano Darderi in semifinals in Houston

Luciano Darderi's rise continues as he reached the semifinals in the ATP tournament in Houston, USA, beating Marcos Giron in the night with a rather clean 6-0, 6-4, ending the match in one hour and twenty-seven minutes of play. In the semifinals the class of 2002 will face Frances Tiafoe, current No. 21 in the rankings, with a recent top 10 ranking.

The match that pitted Darderi against Giron è got off to a great start: the first set è slipped away without any particular difficulty, with three games won on his opponent’s serve, althoughé the latter was able to nullify no less than four set balls before capitulating on the advantages.

The second fraction was more balanced: in the sixth game Darderi wasted three break points that would have given him the opportunity to make it 4-2 but the Italian-Argentinean did not break down, finding the break in his favor just when he was serving, on 5-4. All it took was a match point, in fact, to close out the match and win access to the semifinals.

Darderi è thus gave himself another prestigious challenge (the first in his career against Tiafoe), which comes after his successes against Denis Kudla and especially against Francisco Cerundolo (number 23 in the world), before his victory against Giron.