Luciano Darderi and Sumit Nagal – Photo Daniele Combi/MEF Tennis Events
The City of Perugia Tennis Internationals have just ended with the overwhelming victory of Luciano Darderi on the Centrale of the Perugia Tennis club, a club founded way back in 1899.
The backdrop of the large audience present is further confirmation of the success that tennis is currently enjoying everywhere in Italy.
Darderi is the first Italian to win this ATP Challenger 125, which also saw the participation of a large number of Italian tennis players. Among them, the very young Palermo native Federico Cinà, Andrea Pellegrini and the ‘blond’ Fognini, here faced by Luciano Darderi, number one seed: the first with the result 6-3 6-0, the second 6-3 6-3, the third 6-1 6-2. Fognini himself, before being beaten by Darderi, had played and won two derbies with Enrico Dalla Valle and Matteo Gigante. Even the German Daniel Altmaier, before being stopped in the semi-final by a Darderi who did not lose a single set in the tournament, had won against 2 Italians: Stefano Travaglia and Francesco Passaro, who played in front of the home crowd.
Never seen so many Italian tennis players, not only in the minor circuits, but also among the top 100: Sinner, Musetti, Darderi, Arnaldi, Cobolli, Sonego, Berrettini (after Stuttgart 65, in great recovery!), Nardi and, just outside the top 100, Fognini (102); also in women’s tennis, in the WTA ranking we find Jasmine Paolini (n. 7), Elisabetta Cocciaretto (43), Lucia Bronzetti (66), Martina Trevisan (90) and Sara Errani (91). Considering that many of them are very young, in a few years, if we know how to manage this sporting heritage well, Italian tennis will be even more stellar!
Darderi, number 34 in the ATP rankings since Monday (he surpasses Arnaldi and becomes the third of the Italians), continues to improve his best ranking and still demonstrates that he has a lot of determination and perseverance; he is capable, especially on clay, of imparting a particular intensity to all his shots, which he throws like ‘darts’ at the opponent’s court, with a rhythm that gives no respite. His father-coach Gino and his girlfriend Brianna are always at his side, even in Perugia, where in 2022 he reached the semi-final as n. 300 approximately, beaten by Jaume Munar.
A bond of gratitude ties him to Umbria where he also won the Challenger of Todi less than a year ago, when he had not yet gained momentum in the ATP circuit with the victory on the red clay of Cordoba (Argentina), coming from the qualifiers, in February this year. A dear place, therefore, as well as a beautiful and welcoming city, which with its red clay fields represents for Darderi the antechamber of the Paris Olympics, for which he has already received the invitation, together with Sinner, Musetti, Arnaldi, Bolelli, Vavassori, Paolini, Cocciaretto, Errani and Bronzetti.
Today Luciano’s determination left no breathing room for his Indian opponent, who is generally not easy to face. Darderi stood out from the start for his speed and fluidity, finding the right solutions and repeatedly breaking his opponent. The second set was more balanced. In somewhat difficult moments he was able to react quickly and clearly. Result: 6-1 6-2 in just an hour and 2 minutes of play.
To achieve victories, in sport as in life, it is not enough to have talent, but it takes work and daily dedication. The Darderi family knows this well: years of tireless “wanderings” especially through Italy and Latin America, playing singles and doubles, to build a professional future; hours and hours of daily training by Luciano with his brother Vito, followed by their father Gino, son of an Italian emigrant in Argentina, who taught them tennis technique and work ethic. It is to him that Luciano dedicates this victory, on Father’s Day, for the Argentines. Luciano’s modesty is not surprising, his awareness that results come gradually thanks to sacrifice, when he states that his goal is to reach the top 30 by 2024.
The twenty-two-year-old Italian tennis player born in Argentina is having the extraordinary experience of having found himself, in a very short time, beyond the television screen through which, until a year ago, he watched the Slams of the champions with whom he now plays his matches… We hope to be able to applaud him in one of those Slams soon!
Gisella Bellantone
