HAMBURG, Germany :Italy’s Flavio Cobolli came from a set down to battle past Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina and reach the Hamburg Open final with a 2-6 7-5 6-4 win on Friday.
With the French Open starting on Sunday, Cobolli dug deep to come from 3-1 behind in the second set before reaching his second final of the season in which he will face Andrey Rublev.
The Russian third seed, a winner in Hamburg in 2020 and losing finalist in 2019, eased past Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-1 6-4 and will now bid for his second title of the season after winning the Qatar Open.
Claycourt specialist Etcheverry earned his first break points in the sixth game and he converted on the third opportunity to go 4-2 up.
He then broke Cobolli, ranked 35th in the world, when the erratic Italian – who had 18 unforced errors at that stage, three times as many as his opponent – double-faulted on Etcheverry’s third set point.
Etcheverry initially kept up the pressure, hitting the ball deep, with one shot landing flat on the baseline to break his opponent again and go 3-1 up.
Cobolli, however, was not done, cutting down his error count and pinning Etcheverry to the baseline with longer rallies.
He twice broke the world number 55 to go 6-5 up and held serve to grab the second set.
The third went with serve until Cobolli broke to go 5-4 up, going on to reach the biggest final of his career on his first match point.
Rublev enjoyed an easier semi-final, breaking his opponent twice in the first set.
He broke again to go 5-4 up in the second and comfortably held serve to reach the final.
