Luciano Darderi found himself in the middle of a controversial pre-match episode during his Italian Open semifinal matchup against Casper Ruud on Friday. The hometown star appeared to snub a child mascot as he walked right past him to the main court. Former tennis icon Rennae Stubbs wasted no time criticizing Darderi on social media.
Before a single point was played on Friday, an awkward moment between Luciano Darderi, Casper Ruud, and the ball kids captured everyone’s attention. As Rudd first entered the court ahead of the semifinals, he held the hand of the child mascot assigned to him as per the tradition. On the other hand, Luciano Darderi strode past his child mascot, wearing a pair of sunglasses, ignoring the ball boy’s existence, who was waiting for the Italian to hold his hand.
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The former World No. 1 in Women’s doubles, Rennae Stubbs, took it to Twitter to voice her displeasure regarding the incident.
“Oy, that didnt look great!” – Rennae Stubbs reacted to the incident.
The 24-year-old had become a local hero after overcoming significant obstacles to reach the semi-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time in his career. While some fans online saw this as an oversight as a result of wearing shades or pre-game jitters, others viewed it as a deliberate act and a lack of sportsmanship.
Casper Ruud outmatches Luciano Darderi to reach the finals of the Italian Open
In a rain-interrupted semi-finals, Casper Rudd annihilated Luciano Darderi in an easy 6-1, 6-1 win on Friday. The Norwegian took a little more than an hour to hand the Italian the embarrassing loss. In an exclusive post-game interview, the former World No. 2 pointed out that he used Darderi’s nervousness to his advantage to bag a win to reach the finals.
“It’s my 10th semifinal, I think in a Masters 1000, and it was his [Luciano Darderi] first, so you try to use that experience to your advantage, and I think I did that well today” – Casper Ruud said in a post-game interview.
“He was maybe a little bit stressed, a little bit nervous of the occasion, but I tried to stay focused and kind of in my own tunnel vision,” Ruud added
Ruud will now face either the current World No. 1 Jannik Sinner or Medvedev in the Rome finals, whereas Luciano Darderi must decide whether he wants to fly to Germany to participate in the Hamburg Open or take some cooling time and focus on recovery and preparation before the French Open.
Edited by Ahana Bhaumik