Luciano Darderi restarts with a victory after controversy in Rome

In the first round of the ATP 500 in Hamburg, Luciano Darderi (number 7 seed) overcame Argentine Roman Andres Burruchaga, number 66 in the world rankings, with a score of 6-3 7-6(4) after one hour and fifty minutes of play. In the round of 16, the Italian coming off a semifinal defeat in Rome, with controversy attached for what happened at the entrance to the court and more, will face Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann.

The start of the match immediately smiles on Burruchaga, who wins the break in the opening game thanks to a forehand winner. Darderi, however, reacted immediately: on the third useful chance of the second game he found the 1-1 by taking advantage of a backhand error by the Argentine, before putting the arrow with a powerful forehand acceleration for 2-1. The Internazionali d’Italia semifinalist gradually takes control of the match, again snatching serve for 3-1 thanks to a heavy shot that misleads his opponent. The cross-court forehand of 4-1 confirms the favorable momentum of the Italian, who then rises to 5-1 with a winning backhand response. An empty passage allows the South American to recover one of the two break disadvantages, but Darderi closes the first set on 6-3 with the well-established service-right combination.

In the second partial, balance initially reigns. Burruchaga holds the opening serve, while Darderi responds with authority thanks to her first serve. The games flowed smoothly, although the world number 16 missed two break points between the fifth and seventh games. The turning point seemed to come in the eighth game, when the Azure’s double fault handed the Argentine the 5-3 break. Darderi’s reaction, however, is immediate: he takes advantage of some errors by his opponent to go back up to 5-4 and completes the hooking in the next game.

Thus it inevitably comes to the tie-break. Burruchaga gets off to a better start and flies to 3-0 thanks to a splendid backhand longline passer. Darderi, however, shifts gears: he shortens it to 4-1, recovers to 4-4 by taking advantage of a forehand error by his rival, and puts his head ahead with a net winner for 5-4. An ace got him match point, which was converted shortly after thanks to yet another forehand error by the Argentine for the final 7-4.