ATP Tour

Hanfmann upsets Cobolli in Montreal

Roland Garros finalist Flavio Cobolli is out of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.

Yannick Hanfmann upset the sixth seed 7-6(5), 7-6(2) on Tuesday evening to reach the third round in Montreal.

"You just have to keep playing. He is a Top 10 player,” Hanfmann, the No. 57 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, said. “Even though you might be up by one break or two breaks, you have to keep playing until the end and that's what I kept telling myself. In the second set it got a bit dicey. So, super proud of myself to win that tie-break.

“[It is important] to stay composed. It's about putting your foot forward and focus on your serve and all these things."

Entering the match, Hanfmann was 4-21 against Top-10 opponents, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. But the German won 41 per cent of his first-serve return points to claim the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

Hanfmann will next take on 26th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Nuno Borges.

Alex de Minaur earned a second-round victory earlier in the day, surviving some drama in his opening match. The third seed saved six set points in the second set before defeating fellow Australian James Duckworth 6-2, 7-6(6) to advance to the third round at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

De Minaur led 3-1 in the second set and appeared on course for a straightforward victory before Duckworth raised his level. The 34-year-old earned three set points while leading 6-5, then held three more at 6/3 in the tie-break. But De Minaur erased all six opportunities, keeping his composure under pressure to close out the one-hour, 46-minute victory.

“In the first set everything was flowing, I was up a break, had a couple more chances to go up by a double break and all of a sudden it slips away,” De Minaur said “And then all of a sudden momentum shifts… And we got into a battle. So. I am glad I was able to sneak through. There are a couple of things I need to tighten up on. But we live to fight another day.” 

With the victory, the 27-year-old improved to 3-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Duckworth. The next test for De Minaur, the 2023 finalist, will be a third-round meeting with Cameron Norrie or Ignacio Buse.

In other action on Tuesday at the Masters 1000 event, Frances Tiafoe rallied past two-time quarter-finalist Marin Cilic 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 in two hours and 16 minutes to advance to the third round. The 28-year-old saved five of the six break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

The American, who lost his opening match in Washington last week, ensured no such thing would happen in Montreal, where he edged the Croatian to improve to 15-1 in opening-round matches this season. Tiafoe has now reached the third round at every Masters 1000 event he has contested in 2026.

Watch Tiafoe edge Cilic in Montreal R2: