Luciano faces a monster.

Zverev is feared in Rome and he just destroyed Blockx, who’s been on fire. Is Darderi going to get the same treatment?

Not easy to say. On the one hand, Zverev has really played solid tennis and is having a season that’s overall excellent. But with him, you’re never safe from a slightly poor match with excuses at the end. He’s also playing a local player, which isn’t easy to deal with because the crowd is wild. The Italians in the draw are doing very well this week.

That doesn’t take anything away from Zverev’s quality, who once again was ill in the first round, but has been better since. And here he is, a potential outsider for the title this week, as so often.

Not much else to say about him. His two matches are diametrically opposed. You can feel that he got his energy back in the second round and that he’ll be in good shape tomorrow.

I have a bit more to say about Darderi, who just confirmed what I’d already seen in the first round against Hanfmann, namely that he’s in much better form than his recent results suggested. In any case, he’s much more focused in Rome and really trying to go far this week with good energy management and solid tennis. He took a beating from Paul for a set and a half and couldn’t even blame himself for playing badly, since it was literally Paul running him over while playing perfect tennis. But Darderi was faultless in terms of attitude, he kept encouraging himself and finding solutions until he completely made Paul implode, and Paul never recovered after letting his lead slip.

He’s good this week and you can feel he’s hungry for wins. Is that enough to go and beat Zverev? I don’t think so. On the other hand, to hang in there and deliver a good performance, there I’d say yes.