Wimbledon: Flavio Cobolli is still in the running; a tough opponent awaits him

After his first-round match against Mariano Navone—which spanned two days and ended in a four-set victory—Flavio Cobolli advanced to the next round at Wimbledon, once again defeating Australian James Duckworth, ranked No. 79 in the ATP rankings, in four sets. The Roman wrapped up the match in three hours and one minute, with set scores of 7-6(4), 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-1.

Awaiting him now is another veteran of the tour, 30-year-old Karen Khachanov, fresh off victories against Britain’s Billy Harris and Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann. Khachanov has a strong track record against Italian players, boasting a record of 24 wins and 16 losses. They have faced each other only twice on grass, both times against Matteo Berrettini in 2019—in Stuttgart and Halle—with Berrettini winning both matches.

Cobolli and Khachanov, on the other hand, have faced each other only once, at the 2014 Madrid Masters 1000: in that second-round match, the Russian defeated the current world No. 10 in a hard-fought contest, winning 7-5, 6-4. The most recent match between the former Top 10 player (he was ranked eighth in July 2019) and an Italian took place in January, in the third round of the Australian Open: Luciano Darderi came out on top, with a final score of 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.