Seventh-seeded Flavio Cobolli was two points from defeat Monday before mounting a comeback to defeat No. 28 seed Alexander Blockx 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in the third round of the Cincinnati Open in Mason, Ohio.
Blockx appeared poised to repeat his victory over Cobolli from Monte Carlo earlier this season when the Belgian broke for a 5-3 lead in the deciding set and served for the match. Cobolli instead broke back and swept the final four games to reach the round of 16.
“I am a warrior, you know,” Cobolli said in his on-court interview after the match. “I really don’t like to lose.”
The Italian needed a comeback after Blockx, who struck 10 aces in the match, evened things by taking the second set. Cobolli then found himself on the verge of elimination before turning the match around in the final four games.
“Today I was lucky a bit with that return,” Cobolli said of the point that helped launch his late escape. “We got a great battle today and we both deserved this win, but this time it was with me.”
Cobolli will next meet 12th-seeded Rafael Jodar, who needed considerably less drama in a 6-2, 6-1 rout of No. 22 Alejandro Tabilo of Chile.
Jodar fired 10 aces and was never broken in the match while winning 76.7% of his first-service points. The 19-year-old Spaniard broke Tabilo five times.
Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante followed his stunning second-round victory over Novak Djokovic with another win, edging Spain’s Martin Landaluce 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
Neither player could create much separation, with one break apiece over two sets, but Tirante controlled both tiebreakers to reach the fourth round.
Fifth-seeded Alex de Minaur also advanced in straight sets, but not without a push from No. 32 Arthur Fery.
de Minaur defeated the Briton 7-5, 7-6 (3) in a rain-interrupted match. The Australian led 5-1 in the second set before another delay gave Fery a chance to regroup. Fery responded by winning five consecutive games for a 6-5 advantage, only for de Minaur to hold and then take control of the tiebreaker.
Top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany was pushed in his third-round match before eking out a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6) win over France’s Terence Atmane. Each player had a service break early in the first serve, and Zverev saved the lone break point of the second set in the opening game.
No. 21 Arthur Fils of France squandered a match point in the second-set tiebreaker but ultimately toppled No. 9 Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-3.
No. 14 Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic downed Australia’s Rinky Hijikata 6-3, 6-4, and No. 18 Tommy Paul rallied past Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
