Swedish atp

Jesper De Jong Nordea Open: Luciano Darderi of Italy dug deep into his energy reserves to upset top seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina to pull off his maiden Top-20 victory and book a final spot in the Nordea Open here on Saturday.

The Italian overcame top seed Cerundolo 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3) in hot conditions at the Swedish ATP 250 to reach his third tour-level championship match. Darderi rallied from 2-4 in the final set to prevail in a match featuring 11 breaks of serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats. This helped him set up a Sunday final against Jesper de Jong.

“Playing against Francisco is always very tough. Today I played an amazing match, but in front of me I had one of the best players in the world,” said Darderi in his on-court interview. “It’s never easy to play against a friend, too, but I played a great match. I fought until the last point, and I think that was the key to the match today.”