Flavio Cobolli wins blue derby at Roland Garros

Good start for Flavio Cobolli at Roland Garros: the Florence-born tennis player beat Andrea Pellegrino on his debut in the all-Italian derby at the French Open, qualifying for the second round of the Paris Slam. The world number 14 prevailed in three sets with the scores of 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 in two hours and twenty-five minutes of play.

Cobolli made his greater technical rate count against the number 124 in the ATP rankings, who was just back from a sumptuous tournament in Rome, which saw him eliminated in the round of 16 against world number one Jannik Sinner. Starting from the qualifiers, Pellegrino offered good resilience especially in the second partial, when he pushed the set all the way to the tie-break, won by Cobolli 7-4.

The Apulian nevertheless put in some spectacular shots and confirmed the growth of the last few weeks: his goal is to enter the Top 100 of the ATP circuit soon. Cobolli qualified for the second round where he will meet the winner of the match between China’s Yibing Wu and the U.S.’s Marcos Giron.

The Azzurro’s goal is to do better than 2025, when he had ended his tournament in the third round, defeated by world number three Alexander Zverev in three sets. On his way Cobolli could opponents such as Tien, Medvedev and De Minaur.