The Italian Open quarter-final match between Italy's Luciano Darderi and Spain's Rafael Jodar was interrupted late on May 13 by smoke from fireworks celebrating Inter Milan's Coppa Italia final win at the nearby Stadio Olimpico. The smoke severely reduced visibility on the centre court and briefly disrupted the tournament's electronic line-calling system, forcing officials to halt play for almost 20 minutes while waiting for conditions to clear and the technology to reset [1, 2, 3].
At the time of the pause, Jodar was leading 6-5 in the opening set. The match had already faced delays earlier due to heavy rain, which caused about two and a half hours of suspension. This pushed the quarter-final start to nearly 11 p.m., extending play into the early hours of May 14 [1, 2, 3].
After an intense three-hour and eight-minute battle, Darderi, ranked 20th in the world and aged 24, triumphed over 19-year-old Jodar, who is ranked 34th, with a final score of 7-6(7-5), 5-7, 6-0. Darderi described the victory as "the best win of my career" and advanced to his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final, where he is set to face Casper Ruud [2].
Earlier the same day, Inter Milan defeated Lazio 2-0 in the Coppa Italia final at the Stadio Olimpico. The victory celebrations included fireworks that produced the smoke drifting onto the adjacent tennis venue [1, 2, 3].
