Rome, May 12 (IANS) Italian crowd favourite Luciano Darderi produced one of the most remarkable turnarounds of the ATP season on Tuesday, fighting back from the brink to defeat second seed Alexander Zverev and book his place in the quarter-finals of the Italian Open for the first time.

Roared on by a packed home crowd at the Foro Italico, Darderi recovered from a set and a break down before saving four match points in a tense second-set tie-break to complete an unforgettable 1-6, 7-6(10), 6-0 victory in two hours and 25 minutes.

The 24-year-old looked headed for a routine defeat after Zverev dominated the opening set with powerful baseline hitting and then moved 5-3 ahead in the second. But just when the match appeared over, Darderi found a way back into the contest, breaking serve and forcing a tie-break in front of an increasingly animated Italian crowd.

“It was a very tough match. At the start, I was not feeling very good physically. At 3-5 in the second set, I was done. I think I had a small chance in the second set when I held for 4-5, and then the tie-break was a lot of pressure for him and me,” Darderi said after the victory, as quoted by ATP.

The decisive tie-break turned into a test of nerve as Zverev repeatedly edged closer to victory but failed to convert any of his four opportunities to close out the match. On the first match point, the German netted a backhand. Darderi then stayed alive with a strong first serve on the second, benefited from a Zverev forehand error on the third, and produced a delicate drop volley under pressure to erase the fourth.

“It is not easy to play here because I am a bit nervous, but it was really nice. It was a good fight mentally from me,” Darderi said.

After eventually snatching the tie-break on his second set point, helped by a costly Zverev double fault, the momentum completely shifted. Darderi stormed through the deciding set without dropping a game as the world No. 2 struggled to recover mentally from the collapse.

“I won because of the crowd. You can’t give up here. The crowd helped me a lot, and it is a dream to be in the quarter-finals. It is the tournament of my life,” he added.

The win marked Darderi’s first career victory over a Top-10 opponent and made him the first player other than Jannik Sinner to defeat Zverev at the Masters 1000 level since Shanghai last October.

The Italian has now climbed to No. 17 in the live ATP rankings and will next face teenage sensation Rafael Jodar, who earlier became the first teenager since Novak Djokovic in 2007 to reach the Rome quarter-finals.

–IANS

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