Italians Darderi, Cobolli earn first-round wins in Rome

There was Italian success at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Wednesday, when home favourites Luciano Darderi and Flavio Cobolli advanced to the second round in Rome.

Darderi, 22, clawed past Denis Shapovalov 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-6(4) in a three-hour, nine-minute thriller to earn victory on his tournament debut. The No. 54 in the PIF ATP Rankings rallied from a break down in the third set, while he fired 25 winners to advance. The Cordoba champion will next play Argentine Mariano Navone.

Cobolli defeated German qualifier Maximilian Marterer 6-4, 6-2 to clinch his first tour-level win on Italian soil since 2021. The 22-year-old, who arrived in Rome off the back of a third-round run in Madrid, next meets American Sebastian Korda.

Other Day 1 winners in the Italian capital featured Yannick Hanfmann, Nuno Borges, Zhang Zhizhen and Thiago Monteiro.

Hanfmann defeated #NextGenATP Czech Jakub Mensik 6-3, 6-2 to level the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1, while Borges saved two match points en route to beating Pedro Martinez 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(8). China’s Zhang overcame Daniel Elahi Galan 6-2, 7-5 and Brazilian qualifier Monteiro downed Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-2, 7-5.

Perfection from Thiago ✨@dThiagoMonteiro sees off Monfils 6-2 7-5 to progress in Rome! @InteBNLdItalia | #IBI24 pic.twitter.com/qEngK0WgHy

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 8, 2024

Pavel Kotov took down #NextGenATP American Alex Michelsen 6-1, 6-1 to set a second-round meeting with Ben Shelton, while Yoshihito Nishioka defeated Sebastian Ofner 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(4). The Japanese lefty plays Grigor Dimitrov in the second round.

Alexander Shevchenko reached the third round in Rome last year and made a strong start to this year's campaign with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Fabian Marozsan, who upset Carlos Alcaraz at the ATP Masters 1000 event 12 months ago. Shevchenko plays Karen Khachanov in the second round.

Play has been suspended since shortly after 5 p.m. local time due to rain.