Norway's Ruud cruises into Italian Open final with thrashing of Darderi

[p]Norwegian [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ruud-casper/zN9UpRqp/"]Ruud[/a], a specialist on clay, dealt with flamboyant [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/darderi-luciano/jeXTxMIp/"]Darderi[/a] with the minimum of fuss, even after having to wait nearly two hours to restart a match he was already winning easily.[/p][image alt="Match stats" id="04bc96bb-9b99-4bc0-a7b9-a9b45d9dd4f6" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="d1f5d1c8-d617-49de-979a-992de2fc60b5" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p]A huge downpour paused, but had no impact on, Ruud's march to his first final since winning in Stockholm in October last year.[/p][p]When play was stopped, Ruud was 4-1 up and at advantage in game six of the first set, which he immediately won after the restart on centre court in Rome.[/p][p][b]Not including the rain interruption Ruud took little more than an hour to see off Darderi to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/darderi-l-jeXTxMIp/ruud-c-zN9UpRqp/?mid=WOHH2E53"]win a tour-leading 140th match on clay[/a] since the start of 2020, in which time he has won more tournaments on the surface than any other ATP player.[/b][/p][p]He enters the weekend not knowing who he'll face in the final, with further rain delays causing [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/medvedev-d-O8qG0Nhb/sinner-j-6HdC3z4H/?mid=6XMkYEio"]Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev's clash[/a] to be suspended and taken into Saturday with the Italian a break up in the deciding set.[/p]