Luciano Darderi beats Daniel Altmaier in a semi-final worthy of the beauty of this edition of the City of Perugia Tennis Internationals | GIMa. Tennis Cup. At 6.30 pm on Sunday 16 June at the Tennis Club Perugia there will be the final between the Italian and Sumit Nagal, who defeated Bernabè Zapata Miralles in the afternoon with a score of 7-6(2) 1-6 6-2. The city is buzzing with excitement for the final act of the ATP Challenger 125 tournament organized by MEF Tennis Events, which this week has attracted the attention of passionate and curious historians. In the match between the Top 100 Darderi took the victory against Altmaier with a score of 7-6(4) 6-3. In the double title went to the Argentine Guido Andreozzi and the Mexican Miguel Reyes-Varela, who got the better of Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann 6-4 7-5.
Darderi: “All these people during the European football championship? Perugia you are special” – “You are the future of Italian tennis”, they shout from the stands. Luciano Darderi smiles, thanks and enjoys a wonderful moment. Experience can sometimes be worth more than cold ranking numbers and the semi-final against Daniel Altmaier was anything but a given. It was an Italian victory against Centrale of the Perugia Tennis Club with a score of 7-6(4) 6-3, all after saving three set points in the twelfth game of the first set: “Am I the future of our tennis? It’s not just me but many strong guys that you know well. It was a battle against Altmaier, but it’s great to be in the final in Perugia. I made the semi-final the first time here, last year it didn’t go very well and now I want the title. My goal is to become the first Italian to win in Perugia.” In fact, in nine editions of the Challenger none of our tennis players have ever been able to lift the most coveted trophy, Edoardo Lavagno in the last edition had surrendered in the final to Marozsan. The Umbrian public responded greatly on the day of the semi-finals and did so during the national football team’s challenge at the European Championship: “I didn’t expect all these people during the football match, for me all this is fantastic. Now there will be Nagal, a strong and confident opponent, but I don’t think I’m any less.” The victory is virtually worth the 37th position in the world, in case of victory he would reach the best ranking of number 34 ATP with overtaking his compatriot Arnaldi. After Perugia it will be time for grass and then for the Olympics, the next event is the ATP 500 in Halle: “I saw the scoreboard before entering the field and I wasn’t very happy because in Germany I will be playing with Struff, a very strong opponent. I haven’t trained on grass yet, but I repeat, now I’m only thinking about Perugia.”
Nagal: “I don’t want to leave second” – Those who knew him knew what he was capable of, those who discovered him this week realized it quickly. Sumit Nagal’s 2024 continues smoothly and after last week’s success at the Heilbronn Challenger, he will have the chance to repeat with Perugia. In the semi-final of the lower part he tamed his friend Bernabè Zapata Miralles with a score of 7-6 (2) 1-6 6-2: “We are friends, we have known each other for 8 years now. He is a tough opponent, he plays at a very high pace and if you get distracted he takes the lead on points. In the final part of the match today I had something more and I took the success.” This week, world number 77 at the end of the tournament is already certain of retouching his best ranking, but now the priority is the trophy: “For us tennis players it’s not just a question of points and rankings. I want to win this Challenger, leaving on Sunday as champion or second is something that changes things a lot in terms of motivation.”
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