Flavio Cobolli: The grass-court season gets off to a rocky start
Flavio Cobolli’s run-up to Wimbledon hasn’t started as he’d hoped. Fresh off his extraordinary run at Roland Garros—which ended with a loss in the final to Alexander Zverev after a memorable battle—and his subsequent entry into the Top 10 of the ATP rankings, the Roman arrived in Halle with enthusiasm but also with the awareness that he would have to navigate the always tricky transition from clay to grass.
His debut was not a happy one: in the first round of the German tournament, Cobolli was defeated by Frances Tiafoe with a score of 6-2, 7-6(4) in a match of two halves, characterized by a complicated, almost nightmarish first set, with the American more incisive at every stage, and a much more balanced second set, in which Cobolli even had a chance to extend the match.
In the tiebreak, in fact, the Italian took an early 2-0 lead before suffering a 7-2 run that handed the match to Tiafoe. A missed opportunity that raises some questions about Cobolli’s immediate adaptability on grass, a surface where he still has plenty of room for improvement. No cause for alarm, then, but a small wake-up call: after the exertions in Paris and the thrill of a historic achievement, the transition to grass requires time, adaptation, and rhythm.
Only one Italian remains in the main draw of the ATP tournament in Halle: Mattia Bellucci, who, after advancing through qualifying, faces Alexander Bublik in the first round, a match scheduled for late Thursday morning (no earlier than 11:30 a.m.).
