There is no stopping Luciano Darderi right now. The Italian advanced to his second consecutive tour-level final on Friday at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag, where he overcame third seed Camilo Ugo Carabelli 7-6(6), 6-3.
Darderi arrived at the ATP 250 event in Umag off the back of his third ATP Tour title in Bastad. The 23-year-old has continued his impressive form in Croatia and played with a mixture of grit and quality against Ugo Carabelli in the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.
The second seed saved one set point on return at 5/6 in the first-set tie-break and then won 89 per cent of his first-serve points in the second set, according to Infosys ATP Stats, dominating the big-hitting baseline exchanges to advance after one hour and 45 minutes.
"I played very good. I stayed focused in the first set because he was playing very good in the beginning of the match. I just stayed focused. Was a set point down but kept fighting and then in the second set I played so much better, so I am very happy to be in the second final in a row," Darderi said.
Man on a mission! 🤩@Lucianodarderi_ is final bound once again after an impressive 7-6(6) 6-3 victory over Ugo Carabelli.@CroatiaOpenUmag | #CroatiaOpen pic.twitter.com/Uv32PYFfoT
— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 25, 2025
Darderi has won his past eight matches and will compete in his fourth tour-level final on Saturday against Carlos Taberner. Darderi, who holds a perfect 3-0 record in ATP Tour title clashes, joins Carlos Alcaraz (4) and Sebastian Baez (3) as the only men to reach at least three clay-court finals this season. The Italian is up 10 spots to No. 36 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, four spots shy of his career-high No. 32.
In the second semi-final of the day, Spaniard Taberner cruised past fourth seed Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1 to reach his first ATP Tour final. The 27-year-old is up 27 spots to No. 84 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings following his run in Croatia.
