He fought like a lion and even if it went badly, Francesco Passaro from Perugia will always remember the best week of his career, the one that gave him the first two Masters 1000 victories in front of the Foro Italico crowd. With a wasted match point and one step away from the dream, Passaro’s tournament ends, beaten by the Portuguese Nuno Borges, who qualifies for the round of 16 after a long marathon, exactly as it was for Francesco in the first two matches won against Rinderknech and Griekspoor. He finishes 4-6 7-6 (8) 7-6 (4) in 3 hours and 10 minutes for Portugal’s number 1.
THE MATCH
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For someone like Passaro, who could never imagine getting this far ahead, the break suffered in the first set, immediately recovered in the sixth game, is not scary. The break arrives at 4-4, with Francesco canceling a break point and forcing Borges to serve to stay in the wake. An aggressive game brings Passaro to the final 6-4. In the second set we went on serve until the tie-break, the fourth played in the tournament by Francesco, who won 2 out of 3 against Rinderknech and Griekspoor (successes again 7-6 in the third set). Borges gets the first two set points, but the blue cancels them, sending the Grand Stand Arena into a frenzy. Then a ping pong of serves begins, with Passaro having a match point on the Portuguese serve, who is solid and stays in the game. The mini-break is that of 9-8, with the Perugian’s backhand shot ending up on the tape: Borges’ first winner takes the match to the third, once again.
EPILOGUE
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Two missed forehands and a double fault by Borges gave Passaro an unexpected break point in the third game of the decisive set (at 1-1): but the Portuguese got 3 consecutive points and held serve. The set proceeds without a break until yet another tie-break, the fifth of the Passaro tournament. The first mini-break arrives at 3-3 and is for Borges, with an incredible double fault by Francesco. This point was enough for the Portuguese, who earned two match points and exploited the first with another double fault from Passaro, who arrived very tired in the last act of the match.
DARTS OUT
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Luciano Darderi greets the center back of the Foro Italico amidst applause. Yet another demonstration of maturity arrives for the Italian, in a match played largely on equal terms against world number 5 Alex Zverev, who won here in Rome in 2017. The Italian gives in against a player accustomed to certain stages, who with Djokovic’s exit from the tournament and without Sinner and Alcaraz has all it takes to get to the end. Sascha will challenge Nuno Borges, who beat our Francesco Passaro in the morning. It could have been an all-Italian round of 16: we didn’t go too far. It ends 7-6 (3) 6-2 for Zverev, who finishes in one hour and 47 minutes.
THE MATCH
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Darderi is confident on serve and only has to cancel a break point in the fifth game. He doesn’t play when the German is serving, as Zverev never gives the opportunity to pass to Luciano. The tenth game is more contested, the only one on Sascha’s serve which ends up with the advantages. We go to the tie-break after an hour of the match and there Darderi goes down, making some mistakes. The points become heavy and Zverev takes the lead, finishing with the backhand slam that wins the set, won in 64 minutes. Darderi tries not to lose his composure, but it’s too difficult to be down a set against such a strong player. Zverev makes the first break of his match in the fourth game of the second set: ahead 15-40, the German passes to the second chance, with a defensive forehand from Luciano that ends up wide. At 4-2 Darderi has the strength to try and gets the first break point of the match: Zverev cancels it with a lucky ace and then finds two more points, which give the final blow to Luciano. Darderi serves to stay in the match, but the energy runs out. Sascha makes another break (to zero) and closes 6-2 with a finesse near the net.
