Cobolli makes surprise appearance in Australian Open third round

Qualifier Flavio Cobolli reached the third round of the Australian Open by defeating Russian Pavel Kotov 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 at Melbourne Park on Wednesday.

Cobolli, ranked No 100, had never won a main-draw match at a Grand Slam prior to this fortnight. However, the Italian gave himself some momentum heading into this year by competing in the NextGen ATP Finals last fall.

Next up for Cobolli is Australia’s Alex De Minaur, the No 10 seed.

The 21-year-old won against Chilean Nicolas Jarry, the No 18 seed (6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5) ahead of his victory on Wednesday.

In the previous round, Kotov — ranked No 65 — beat Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech (7-5, 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-3).

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other second-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 58.910.000, most recent results first):

• Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Holger Rune vs. Arthur Cazaux
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Hugo Grenier
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis
• Jakub Mensik vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Arthur Fils vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Sumit Nagal vs. Juncheng Shang
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Ugo Humbert vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Nuno Borges vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Tommy Paul vs. Jack Draper
• Max Purcell vs. Casper Ruud
• Cameron Norrie vs. Giulio Zeppieri
• Alex Michelsen vs. Jiri Lehecka
• Alexander Zverev vs. Lukas Klein
• Novak Djokovic vs. Alexei Popyrin
• Jordan Thompson vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Sebastian Korda vs. Quentin Halys
• Frances Tiafoe vs. Tomas Machac
• Christopher Eubanks vs. Andrey Rublev
• Gael Monfils vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Jaume Munar: wednesday
• Christopher O’Connell vs. Ben Shelton: wednesday
• Fabian Marozsan vs. Francisco Cerundolo: wednesday
• Taylor Fritz vs. Hugo Gaston: wednesday
• Aleksandar Kovacevic vs. Karen Khachanov: wednesday
• Lorenzo Musetti vs. Luca Van Assche: wednesday
• Sebastian Baez (26) beat Daniel Elahi Galan: 7-5, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Alex De Minaur beat Matteo Arnaldi: 6-3, 6-0, 6-3
• Jannik Sinner (4) beat Jesper De Jong (Q): 6-2, 6-2, 6-2