Four-hour battle ends in victory for Flavio Cobolli

Court 2 at Wimbledon hosted a four-hour tale of willpower in the third round. Ninth seed Flavio Cobolli, after a nightmare start, beat Karen Khachanov 0-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2 to book his place in the last 16. The world number 10 produced one of the most resilient performances of his career.

The opening could hardly have gone worse for the Italian: Khachanov took the first set 6-0 in just 19 minutes. Cobolli, however, refused to panic, clinging on to the match by winning the second-set tie-break 7-4. He then found himself on the wrong side of the finest of margins in the third, as Khachanov edged another breaker to move back in front. Just when everyone expected the Russian to pull away, the script flipped: against an opponent fading physically and mentally, Cobolli reeled off the fourth and fifth sets 6-2, 6-2 to emerge victorious from the four-hour war.

Efficiency in the key moments decided the contest. Khachanov converted only a fraction of the many break-point chances he created, while Cobolli extracted more from fewer openings and grew ever stronger on serve as the match wore on.

A quarterfinalist on these courts last year, Cobolli is enjoying the peak spell of his career and has now reached the second week at Wimbledon for the second year running. His last-16 opponent is another of the day's winners: fifth seed Alex de Minaur, who dispatched Zachary Svajda in four sets. Two high-tempo games colliding — it promises to be one of the most competitive matchups of the second week.

Match Stats
Score: 0-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2 · Duration: 4 hours
Breaks: Cobolli 4/10 – Khachanov 3/16
First-serve points won: Cobolli 79% – Khachanov 75%

Image: Punto de Break