Flavio Cobolli gets off to a strong start in Beijing: Rublev goes down in two sets
Flavio Cobolli’s adventure at the Beijing ATP 500 began on the right foot. The Roman, world No. 25, eliminated Andrey Rublev, No. 6 in the seedings and No. 14 in the world rankings, with a final score of 7-6 6-3 after an hour and 53 minutes of play.
Uphill start for the Azure who immediately goes down by a break (0-3). Backs to the wall (2-5), Flavio manages to sew up the disadvantage and tie at 5-5. It thus goes to the tie-break dominated by Cobolli who flies to 6-1 before closing 7-3.
The second set also started badly for the Roman who lost his serve in the opening game. Down 0-2 15-40, Cobolli is good at nullifying two double break points to then hook his opponent and even overtake him (3-2). In the seventh game the Azure cancelled four more break points to the Muscovite before breaking him in the eighth game and closing on 6-3 on serve.
Thanks to this victory Cobolli reaches the round of 16 of the ‘China Open‘ where he will face the winner of the challenge between Francisco Cerundolo, world number 21, and Learner Tien, number 52 in the ATP rankings.
