Italy’s Luciano Darderi had to deal with a smoke delay resulting from fireworks at the Coppa Italia final at the neighbouring Stadio Olimpico before eventually beating teenager Rafael Jodar to reach the Italian Open semi-finals, in a match that finished just after 2am local time.
The quarter-final was delayed for nearly 20 minutes towards the end of the first set as smoke wafted in from fireworks that had been set off at the Stadio Olimpico after Inter Milan beat Lazio 2-0 in Italian football's domestic cup final.
Darderi was complaining that he could not see anything and the smoke was also affecting the cameras for the electronic line-calling system, which had to be reset.
When play resumed, Darderi held serve to take the set to a tiebreaker, where he found himself 5-2 down before rallying.
The 24-year-old Darderi, who on at least a couple of occasions was drinking coffee during changeovers, broke immediately in the second set. Jodar managed to break back and then fend off two match points before levelling the match.
Darderi dominated the decider and sealed the result 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-0 when Jodar hit a forehand into the net, securing his first place in a Masters 1000 semi-final.
He will now play Casper Ruud, who earlier overcame 13th-ranked Karen Khachanov 6-1 1-6 6-2 after a match suspended by more than two hours at the start of the second set by rain.
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