Flavio Cobolli overwhelmed by Luca Nardi in derby in Montpellier

The all-Italian derby between Flavio Cobolli and Luca Nardi, valid for the quarterfinals of the Montpellier ATP 250, ended without history. The Roman, number two in the seeding and number twenty in the world, succumbed decisively to the Pesaro player, number 106 in the ATP ranking, who won with a final score of 6-2 6-3 after just under an hour and a quarter of play. Nardi confirmed himself as a real black beast for Cobolli, beating him for the fourth consecutive time.

Luca Giorgetti

After a couple of games in which the serve follows, it is Nardi who is the first to break the’balance: in the fifth game, the Marche player wins the first break point of the match and converts it thanks to a free error by Cobolli (3-2). The Pesaro player confirms the break at zero and in the seventh game again takes away the serve from the Roman, who commits yet another unforced error. With an ace Nardi makes the first set his (6-2), stringing together a partial run of four consecutive games.

Cobolli manages to stop the bleeding early in the second set when he saves two break points and holds serve (1-0). Flavio is forced to cancel three more break points in the third game but keeps his head ahead. From 3-3, however, Nardi placed a new partial that earned him the victory: the Marche player snatched the serve from Cobolli in the seventh game, confirmed the break (5-3) and repeated it in the ninth on the first match point.

Thanks to this victory, Nardi flies to the quarterfinals of the”Open Occitanie’ where he will face the young U.S. Martin Damm, number 160 in the world rankings, who crashed Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista-Agut (6-1 6-3).

For Cobolli, on the other hand, a start to the season continues to be one to forget after his early elimination in the first round of the Australian Open at the hands of Britain&#8217s Arthur Fery in a match where the Blue had been affected by stomach problems.