ATP Tour

Musetti advances to R4 at US Open for first time after Cobolli retires

Tenth seed Lorenzo Musetti led 24th seed and close friend Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-2, 2-0 in the third round of the US Open Saturday when Cobolli retired due to injury.

“Honestly I didn’t want to finish like that, especially against Flavio, who is probably my best friend on Tour,” Musetti said. “We know each other since [we were] nine years old and we know pretty well the families. We spend many, many hours together on the court and off the court throughout our careers. So first of all, a big round of applause to Flavio, please.”

Musetti arrived at the US Open having lost five of his previous six matches, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. But since losing his first set of the season’s final major to big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, the Italian has been nearly flawless to reach the second week.

The 23-year-old Nitto ATP Finals hopeful broke Cobolli’s serve five times and will next face Zizou Bergs or Jaume Munar. He leads Bergs 1-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, but trails Munar 1-2.

“It’s a bittersweet match and a bittersweet end, but of course I’m happy to be in the fourth round for the first time,” Musetti said. “I think I played a really great match until the last point. Of course Flavio, I could see that from the second set he was struggling a bit, but it was still tough to play against him and I wish him the best of luck to recover soon and to be healthy again.”

Cobolli explained that entering the match he knew he was "on my limit". This year's Bucharest and Hamburg champion, who received treatment during the clash on his arm, made clear he wanted to congratulate Musetti on his performance before revealing more about his injury.

"I had some cramps the other two matches in my fingers and also in my hand, but I played without any problem," Cobolli said. "Today I started my practice and I played without pain, but when I tried my serve I felt something not comfortable in the arm and it [got] worse in the match."

Musetti is ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin and is within 220 points of seventh-placed Jack Draper, who is out of the US Open. The Italian is trying to earn his place in Turin for the first time.