Meeting Roger Federer and facing Janik Sinner: Luciano Darderi’s unforgettable Australian Open | ATP Tour

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Meeting Federer and facing Sinner: Dudley’s unforgettable Australian Open

The Italian gives insight into his newfound success on hard courts

January 25, 2026

Will Roger Federer be Luciano Dadri’s lucky charm?

Before the Italian entered the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time at the Australian Open, he met one of the sport’s greatest legends: Roger Federer. The Swiss, who had been on the court earlier in the fortnight, was posed for a photo with the 23-year-old Dudley, a moment made more comfortable because his fitness coach Bernardo Carberol already knew the 103-time Tour winner.

“For the first time, he knows the way I play, he knows who I am,” a surprised Dudley told ATPTour.com. “Congratulations,” he said.

Federer is not alone.

Many people have come to know Dudley, who first broke into the top 100 of the PIF ATP Rankings about two years ago. Now, he’s up to No. 23 in the PIF ATP live rankings and still climbing.

Surprisingly, Dudley’s Grand Slam breakthrough came on a hard court. Entering the Australian Open, his average record was 9 wins and 29 losses. Now, the 2025 three-time clay-court champion reaches the fourth round after defeating friends Christian Garin, Sebastian Baez and 2023 Melbourne semifinalist Karen Khachanov.

“I feel good. I think we had a good pre-season on hard courts and I was confident in Auckland last week because I made it to the quarterfinals for the first time on hard courts,” Dudley said. “I think these matches gave me a lot of confidence and I started playing well here. Today is a very important match for my career because in the second week of a Grand Slam, you don’t do [that] every day. I thought today was a good opportunity for me and I took advantage of it. “

Dudley spent some offseason training in Dubai, where one day he was training with his next opponent: two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner. This will be their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

“We only practiced one day, but we got to know each other. He’s a really nice guy,” Dudley said. “He’s a fantastic player. He’s No. 2 in the world now. He’s won the last two years here… but we’ll try to focus on my game and try to do the best we can.”

Could Dudley learn much from that training session with Sinner into their clash? The four-time ATP Tour champion believes there is a big difference between training and competing.

“Obviously, I think he’s very good on hard courts. So let’s just try to enjoy it, play our best tennis and see what happens,” Dadri said. “He does everything well, so you have to push him into difficult moments or just stay close on the court. He serves, returns, does everything well. That’s why he’s ranked No. 2 in the world right now.”

Dudley has been working on playing more aggressively on hard courts, which has been a big reason for his recent success (he also reached the third round at last year’s U.S. Open). The Italian spent 10 days in Argentina before the start of the season with his father and coach Luciano Henrique Dadri and former world number 13 Guillermo Pérez-Roldan.

“yes [making] “This is a really good team and I’m really happy with them,” Dudley said before explaining what their focus is. Hard court attack is one of the keys, but of course there are a lot of things. ”

Talking about Pérez-Roldan, Dadri said: “I think we are really similar. From the beginning, he told me the same thing, that his forehand, serve and fight are just like mine, which is very good. He is also a real friend of my father, so it is really good to have him in the team, with a lot of experience. He is ranked 13th in the world, so he can bring a lot to me.

“We’re just trying to be aggressive in the big moments and serve really well, better than on clay. I think the key is always to hit more or harder because I hit it so much on clay. But playing hard now, I have the confidence and I think I have a good forehand and serve that I can play on hard courts.”