A tough Flavio Cobolli gains access to the second round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid. A nice comeback victory for the Roman, who overtook the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo with the score 5-7 6-4 6-4 after just over two hours of play. Another match where the Roman showed all his character and his ability to juggle well when the match becomes a battle. In the next round there will be another Chilean for Cobolli, given that he will face Nicolas Jarry in a remake of the match at the beginning of the season at the Australian Open, when the blue managed to prevail in the fifth set.
In today’s match the 12 aces scored by Cobolli certainly stand out. There are even 35 winners for the blue against 10 unforced errors, while there are 19 for Tabilo, who has 22 winners.
Cobolli has a good start to the match and gets three break points in the third game. Unfortunately the blue is unable to take advantage of the opportunity and especially on the second he has some regrets about the acceleration of the forehand into the net. Cobolli suffers from the lost chance and in the following game he concedes the break to Tabilo after a series of errors. The Chilean escapes at 4-1 and also has two balls to go 5-1, but Cobolli manages to save himself and come back to 5-5, getting the counterbreak in the ninth game after a beautiful backhand return. It looks like a set ready to slip to the tie-break, but Cobolli has another missed pass on serve and loses it again, with the set going to Tabilo 7-5.
There is definitely more balance in the second set, with both tennis players not granting break points to their opponents. We follow the progress of the service shifts and reach the ninth game, when the blue’s response pressure is felt. Cobolli gets two break points and the first one is enough for the Roman, who takes the lead in the set and then closes it in his favor 6-4.
Cobolli suffered a break point at the start, but Tabilo canceled it out with an excellent first serve. In the next game the Chilean gets the opportunity and exploits it, also thanks to the blue’s wrong volley. Cobolli doesn’t give up and finds the counterbreak in the fifth game, then equalizing the score at 3-3. Once again in the most tense moment of the match the blue has more courage and breaks the Chilean’s serve to zero. At 5-4, Flavio also cancels a break point with a very charged second, then finds a fantastic forehand winner and on match point Tabilo fires the return wide, with the Italian able to celebrate a beautiful victory.
