Restless Italians in Paris: Luciano Darderi imitates Jannik Sinner at Roland Garros
Roland Garros without peace for Italian tennis players. In fact, a few hours after Jannik Sinner’s resounding knockout, comes the elimination for Luciano Darderi as well. The Italian-Argentine, exactly like the South Tyrolean, succumbs in five sets and does so against an opponent far behind in the ATP ranking. This is Francisco Comesana, an Argentine (like Juan Manuel Cerundolo) and world number 102 who manages to beat the number 17 by withstanding two comebacks by his opponent.
The first set goes right to Comesana, who gives up the first game with so much break to Darderi and then evens the score at 4-4 and prevails at the tie-break. The Azure reared his head again in the second set, winning by snatching service from his opponent in the last available game, but fell again in the third due to the decisive break at 4-5. It was worth nothing to win as many as four games in a row in the conclusion of the fourth set, as the Argentine hit the 3-2 break in the fifth and won the match in about four and a quarter hours with the score of 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
This is not the first time that Darderi and Comesana have faced each other: the two had already crossed paths last August at the Cincinnati Masters 1000, with the Argentine getting the better of a Darderi who was forced to retire, however, due to a back problem, on the score of 6-4, 3-1. This time the Italo-Argentine was in full health and in the best form of his career, but Comesana proved once again that he could read and deal with him very effectively.
The defeat stings all the more considering the golden moment Darderi was going through. The world number 17 had arrived in Paris fresh from the quarterfinals in Hamburg and the semifinals in Rome, and in the first round he had liquidated Austrian Sebastian Ofner in three sets with a score of 7-6, 6-2, 6-3, showing great physical solidity despite the scorching heat that had also characterized that day. The one against Comesana was therefore a second round within reach for a player in confidence and rising in the world rankings.
The black day for Italian tennis had, moreover, opened in the worst way with Sinner’s collapse on Philippe Chatrier. The world number one, who had arrived in Paris having won the first five Masters 1000s of the year-an all-time record in tennis history-had dominated the first two sets against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, even leading 5-1 in the third, before suffering a devastating physical meltdown related to the extreme heat, with temperatures felt as high as 36 degrees on center court. The defeat halted his extraordinary streak of consecutive victories at 30.
With the exits of Sinner and Darderi, Roland Garros 2026 is thus tinged with bitterness for the Azzurri colors, on a day that will remain long in the memory of Italian tennis fans.
