Too much Shelton for Darderi in Monaco: azure stops in quarters
Luciano Darderi’s adventure at the ATP 500 in Monaco was interrupted in the quarterfinals. The Italian surrendered in two sets to the number two seed Ben Shelton, who prevailed with the final score in almost an hour and a quarter of play.
In the first set, the balance lasted until 4-4: here the American strung together a mini-partial of two consecutive games that earned him the first set, closed with a winning response (6-4).
Darderi’s reaction is immediate: the blue won a break lead in the third game (2-1) but from here Shelton places a new and decisive partial of four games in a row, before closing on the 6-3 final.
Darderi must thus bid farewell to the ‘BMW Open by Bitpanda’: the top 20 taboo is confirmed for the Italian-Argentinean, who has never managed to beat a player in the top 20 of the ATP ranking in his career.
