Flavio Cobolli’s tears for the very young Mattia moves everyone
Flavio Cobolli hit the final of the ATP 500 tournament by beating none other than the world number 3 thanks to a memorable performance. What made a sensation, even more than the feat against one of the absolute stars of today’s tennis, however, was his emotion in the memory of a very young and unfortunate colleague. In fact, the Italian player burst into tears thinking of 13-year-old Mattia Maselli, a promise of the Parioli Tennis Club who tragically passed away on Friday.
A heartfelt tribute, which touched the entire Munich audience, and which Cobolli himself had moreover already anticipated via social. “Every point I play, every ball I touch, every step I take, I will think of you,” he had written on Instagram. Tennis school will never be the same without you, but I swear you will never be forgotten.” He, too, after all, grew up sportingly right in the Roman circles.
In the semifinals Cobolli beat Alexander Zverev with a clear 6-3, 6-3 in less than an hour and a quarter, dominating the world number 3 and number 1 seed in the tournament from the very first bars. The breaks hit in the fourth game of the first set and in the opening of the second were decisive, with the Roman able to react promptly to the German’s counterbreak and close the accounts with authority. In the final for the title on the Bavarian clay, Cobolli will face Ben Shelton, who overcame Slovak Alex Molcan in two sets with a score of 6-3, 6-4.
For the 23-year-old Roman, the one in Munich represents a moral revenge after a less than exciting start to 2026. The only major highlight in the season had come in Acapulco, where Cobolli had won the Mexican Open by overcoming Tiafoe in the final, thus winning the third title of his career on the major circuit. Then had come a series of disappointments: elimination in the first round of the Australian Open at the hands of England’s Fery, a third-round exit at Indian Wells, and a loss in Miami to Belgium’s Raphael Collignon, ranked number 72. The hardest blow, however, had come in Monte Carlo, where Cobolli, the No. 10 seed, had been eliminated in the second round in just an hour and a half by Belgian Alexander Blockx, who had come from the qualifiers, with an eloquent 6-3, 6-3.
Zverev, for his part, arrived in Munich reeling from a difficult week, including on the mental side. At the Monte Carlo tournament he had been overwhelmed in the semifinals by Jannik Sinner with an eloquent 6-1, 6-4, suffering his seventh consecutive defeat against the South Tyrolean champion. Bitter words from the German after that match: “I won five games, I have the feeling that I didn’t play well this week. But I’m losing to him a lot this year, so I have to understand what the main difference is.” A context that helps frame the performance also offered against Cobolli.
For the Roman it is now a golden opportunity to win the fourth career title on the major circuit. As Adriano Panatta had also pointed out recently, Cobolli is among those youngsters who “are hungry and aim to challenge” the dominance of Sinner and Alcaraz. The final against Shelton promises to be a fascinating challenge, with also at stake an important revival in the rankings ahead of the major clay court events of the coming weeks, from Madrid to Rome to Roland Garros.
