Cobolli grinds into his first Masters 1000 semi-final in Cincinnati

Flavio Cobolli’s breakthrough run rolls on. The Italian recovered from a set down to beat American Tommy Paul 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday evening and reach the first Masters 1000 semi-final of his career at the Cincinnati Open, the reward for a week of relentless grinding.

It has been the hard way, every step. Cobolli has now gone the distance in all four of his matches this fortnight, and against Paul he again had to climb out of a hole. Outplayed in the opening set, the No 7 seed steadied himself and let his edge show in the tight moments: he broke Paul just once in each of the final two sets, at 2-1 in the second, then at 5-4 in the third, the decisive strike coming as the American served to stay in the match. From there he closed it out for a place in the last four.

The victory made it 2-0 in his head-to-head with Paul, both wins earned in Cincinnati, and moved him to 31 match-wins in 2026. More than that, it caps a fine bounce-back for a player whose season has swung between highs and lows – a Roland-Garros finalist earlier this year, but also prone to early exits in more ordinary tournaments. Now, on hard courts, the surface of his triumph in Acapulco, he has strung together his deepest Masters run yet.

Fatigue was the great leveller. Both men walked out less than 24 hours after gruelling efforts – Cobolli’s three-set win over Rafael Jodar, Paul’s stunning upset of top seed Alexander Zverev (4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4). For Paul, who had also beaten Adolfo Daniel Vallejo and Hubert Hurkacz to get there, the tank finally ran dry at the worst moment. For Cobolli, the ability to keep finding a way when nothing came easily was the whole story.

He will not have long to recover, either. Cobolli next faces the winner of the all-in-form quarter-final between Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante – conqueror of Novak Djokovic and Jakub Mensik this week – and France’s No 21 seed Arthur Fils, with a place in the Cincinnati final on the line.