Jannik Sinner: World No 1 closes Italian Open final against Casper Ruud before rain halts clash with Daniil Medvedev | Tennis News
World No.1 Jannik Sinner went within two games of the Italian Open final against Casper Ruud before heavy rain halted his semi-final against Daniil Medvedev on Friday, with the home favorite leading 6-2 5-7 4-2.
Play will resume on Saturday at 2pm BST, before the women’s singles final between Coco Gauff and Elina Svitolina (not before 4pm) – live on Sky Sports Tennis.
Sinner’s victory in Rome would see the 24-year-old join Novak Djokovic as the only player to win all nine of the ATP Masters 1000 Career Golden Masters events.
Sinner opened the semi-final in front of a passionate Campo Centrale by playing decent tennis – he missed the first three games in the first four games – before closing out the set in quick double time.
It looked unlikely that Medvedev would be able to turn the game on its head until the Italian’s slump allowed his opponent to move forward with chances to extend his lead to 4-0. But Sinner bounced back, despite looking distracted between points.
The group appeared to be going into the break until Medvedev took advantage of a struggling Sinner, who was struggling to catch his breath after points, bending over to try and recover several times, to force a decider.
Sinner’s pursuit of his sixth consecutive ATP Masters 1000 title appeared to be in jeopardy when he called in his medical team for cramps.
He then seemed re-energized and responded quickly in the third, getting an early break to sew up the crowd and take control of the game.
The match was then called off as rain fell in Rome and the organizers later announced that the match would resume on Saturday.
Ruud reaches Rome’s first final
Casper Ruud raced to the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where he got past a tired Luciano Darderi.
The winner will face Norway’s Casper Ruud in the final after the Norwegian held off a rain delay of almost two hours to beat home player Luciano Darderi 6-1 6-1 and reach the final for the first time.
The match was halted with Ruud leading 4-1 in the first set with a two-hour rain delay.
On the restart, the Norwegian won five of the next six points to wrap up the set before racing to a 4-0 lead in the second set and while Darderi provided resistance on his return, he was unable to take advantage of a life point, and Ruud cruised to victory.
The 20th-ranked Darderi, who was born in Argentina to an Italian family, saved four points in a three-set fourth-round win over Alexander Zverev and then won another marathon match against Spain’s Rafael Jodar in the quarter-final that ended at 2am.
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Ruud’s highlights against Darderi from the Italian Open
“Sounds good,” Ruud said. “I’m sorry for Luciano, playing at home not with great strength, but it’s understandable.
“What a competition he had and luckily for me I did it early that day and had more time to recover. It’s my 10th semi-final in the 1000 and his first, so try to use that experience to your advantage and I think I did well today.”
Ruud has reached two French Open finals, losing to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and Novak Djokovic in 2023.
Rome is the final major warm-up venue before the second Grand Slam of the year begins on Sunday, May 24.
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