One of the less pleasant off-ball moments of the Italian Open came before a single point had even been played in the semifinal between Luciano Darderi and Casper Ruud in Rome. Darderi walked onto the court wearing sunglasses for his entrance and walked past the young girl who was serving as his court escort without a nod, a handshake, or a glance. As he walked by, the child was standing there waiting, and then followed him alone. Ruud, however, had been extremely friendly with his own escorts, creating a greater contrast. The clip went viral, and most people online said that the moment was arrogant. 

The discomfort did not end there. During the game, the heckler in the stands shouted: “We paid for the tickets,” suggesting that the Italian wasn’t playing his full game. Darderi lost his calm and raised his racket toward the spectator in an apparent challenge or sarcastic gesture, inviting the heckler to play the match himself.

The exchange was met with a mixture of booing from the crowd and some noise, and was quickly picked up by social media.  Also, during the game, Darderi was seen walking past a blind ball kid waiting to hand him a towel, apparently lost in his own world.

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The irony of the entrance theatrics was not lost on those watching. He had four match points against Alexander Zverev in the round of 16 and then battled Rafael Jodar for three hours and eight minutes in a quarterfinal that ended at 2 a.m. 

“I think it’s the best win of my career because of the crowd and everything here in Rome. First time in the semi-finals, it’s a dream to play here,” he had said after that win. The sunglasses entrance was, in that context, a player feeding off a week of momentum. The result, however, quickly deflated it.

The semifinal was over almost before it began. Darderi went into his first-ever Masters 1000 semifinal with severely limited recovery time and lost 6-1, 6-1. 

“Honestly, I was tired. I finished too late with Jodar, so the recovery time was a bit different. I was very tired. I’m sorry for the people who came to see me today because I couldn’t give my all. I didn’t have any petrol at all,” he said in his post-match press conference. Ruud, sympathetic in victory, acknowledged the circumstances. “He finished at 2:30 the other night, and what a match he had and what a tournament he’s had. Luckily for me, I was done much earlier than he that day,” Ruud said.

The run in Rome is still expected to lift Darderi to a career-high ranking of around world No. 16. The tournament of his life ended with a disappointing semifinal. Looking back at the entrance swagger, it was a story all on its own.

Darderi’s Swagger-Filled Entrance and Previous Awkward Moments With Kids

This was not the first time that Darderi found himself in an awkward situation with a kid on court. During his quarter-final with Andrey Rublev at the Hamburg Open 2025, a bizarre moment unfolded during the game. The 24-year-old was so locked into the game while preparing to serve that he completely failed to notice a ball boy was tossing him balls, and one of those balls hit him in the private part. There was a discomfort for a few seconds, but after that, the crowd laughed, the ball boy laughed, and eventually Darderi himself.

That was not even the most significant moment that happened with a ball kid in that Hamburg game. Later in the third set, with Rublev on the defensive, a ball kid near Darderi’s end of the court broke from his position prematurely, convinced that Rublev’s shot was heading into the net. Darderi spotted the running ball as it came into view and found himself unable to play a good forehand, which Rublev flustered away. He immediately protested to chair umpire Richard Haigh, arguing the ball kid’s movement had distracted him and that he was entitled to a let. It was not in view of Haigh, and there was no video review, so the point stood. Tennis TV commentator Barry Cowan was unambiguous in reviewing the footage. “The ball kid has already moved, and Darderi looks to his left to see the ball kid moving across. Absolutely, he is well within his rights,” Cowan said. It put Rublev 4-1 up in the third and effectively ended the contest.

The pattern was completed with another incident at the Australian Open. While preparing to serve during a tiebreak against Jannik Sinner at Margaret Court Arena, Darderi was repeatedly interrupted by a baby crying in the crowd. He bounced the ball and tossed it up in the air again, sending out the wail, only to catch it again as the second wail echoed. He turned to the crowd incredulously (but humorously) and elicited laughter and applause from those around him. He coped well with it, and the clip has been viewed more than a million times online, and has led to a broader discussion as to whether babies should be allowed at tennis matches, where the silence of the crowd is an important aspect of the sport’s etiquette. 

All of these moments are insignificant when looked at separately. But all that intensity and focus, which brought him to a first Masters 1000 semifinal in Rome, can leave the people around him feeling completely invisible when they’re all crammed together, during a tournament or an entire season. This week’s most apparent example of that was the entry to the Foro Italico in sunglasses. The little girl standing ignored beside him was the detail that stuck.