Italian Open: Alexander Zverev’s opponent says ‘he gave me a lot of games’ after German’s shock collapse
Alexander Zverev collapsed to an improbable defeat to Luciano Darderi at the 2026 Italian Open after holding a commanding lead and squandering four match points.
The world No 3 fell 6-1, 6-7(10), 0-6 to world No 20 Darderi in a rollercoaster last 16 contest at the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome.
The 28-year-old German led 6-1, 5-3 against Darderi, who appeared to be struggling physically, but he failed to serve the match out at 5-4 in the second set.
In a dramatic second set tiebreak, Zverev was unable to convert match points at 6-5, 8-7, 9-8 and 10-9 before Darderi took his first set point to force a decider.
Zverev then fell apart in the third set as his 24-year-old Italian opponent stormed to the finish line in front of a vociferous crowd on BNP Paribas Arena at the Foro Italico.
In his on-court interview with Tennis TV, Darderi was asked how he won the match.
“I don’t know yet. It was really tough match. At the beginning, I was not feeling really good physically,” Darderi said.
ATP Tour News
‘Alexander Zverev won’t be able to say he did everything he could to win a Grand Slam’
Alexander Zverev ranks Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz on clay after his controversial comments
Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for tennis coverage you can trust.
“But in the second set, I’m sure I was really lucky because he gave me a lot of games. In the 5-3 in the second set, I was done.
“I think I was having a small chance in the second set that he gave me on the 5-4. So I take it. The tiebreak was a lot of pressure, for me, for him.
“I know it’s not easy to play here, because at the beginning, always I have a lot of nerves every match. But I think it’s really nice because it was a real fight mentally against me, and this is the most important thing today.”
On the crowd, Darderi added: “I won because of them, because you can’t give up here. It’s amazing that the crowd helped me a lot on every point.
“So I just have to say thank you to everybody, and it’s a dream being here in the quarter-finals because it’s the tournament of my life here. In Italy, we have just one big tournament, and [to] make, for the moment, quarter-finals here on the first time, is crazy.”
Darderi’s victory against Zverev was his first-ever win against a top 10 player.
“Yeah, I think I have the level to beat anyone, but tennis is like this; you can beat Sascha today and then you can lose against the 50 in the world. This is tennis,” Darderi said.
“Sascha is an amazing player, he has a lot of big achievements in tennis. So I have a lot of respect for him. He’s No 3 in the world.
“It’s just one match, we have to keep working.”
Darderi has climbed three places to a projected new career-high ranking of 17th in the Live ATP Rankings.
The Italian will face Rafael Jodar in the quarter-finals in Rome.
READ NEXT: What is Novak Djokovic’s ranking after his loss at the Italian Open?
