Cobolli leaves three games to Gaio

While the lower part of the draw is almost monopolized by the Italians, Flavio Cobolli remained the only one in the upper part, with the theoretical possibility of offering an all-blue final. In the key match of the day, it took him an hour and pennies to beat Federico Gaio with a severe 6-3 6-0. The score tells of a quite clear superiority, guaranteed by the greater ease of play expressed by Cobolli. Gaius finds it more difficult to push, while his ball comes out light, clean, thrusting, almost without effort . There were beautiful, intense exchanges, but it was often Cobolli who brought home the point. More generally, Cobolli has given substance to the words of these days, when he said that he has a much more rigorous and professional approach, both in training and in matches. The player from Faenza needed to do extraordinary things, like a millimeter lob that allowed him to cancel a matchpoint in the last game. “Come on, I’ll get to game time!” joked Gaius, after his ball was judged good. A few minutes later, however, a bunt sealed the end of the match and offered the ASPRIA Harbor Club crowd a popcorn quarter-final between two young men on the rise. There is a precedent, played two years ago at the Challenger in Barletta, and Cobolli prevailed with a score of 6-1 1-6 7-5. It will be the key match of the day on Friday. He continues the race of the number 1 seed, Facundo Diaz Acosta , who had no problems (6-3 6-1) in the generational challenge against Pablo Cuevas. For the Uruguayan, a similar argument can be made with respect to what was said for Cristian Garin, or rather the difficulty in recovering the condition after a long stop. For him, however, there is one more element: age. At 37, with tennis like his, it won’t be easy to find the results of some time ago. Diaz Acosta will find the Belgian Gauthier Onclin in the quarterfinals, who at the start of the day had overtaken Alessandro Giannessi with a score of 6-4 6-1. In a challenge between two regular players, the Belgian claimed greater freshness and ease of play. However, the score is a lie, because in the second set there were many games concluded with advantages, but the Belgian always brought them home. It will be a complicated test for Diaz Acosta, because Onclin has shown a certain solidity, combined with a very correct approach to the match.