French Open in Paris
Tennis madness: Italian fights his way into the semi-finals
Updated June 3, 2026 – 7:49 p.mReading time: 12 minutes
The last remaining co-favorite alongside Alexander Zverev meets an Italian in top form. A dramatic match develops.
Flavio Cobolli is in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. The 24-year-old Italian won on Wednesday in a thrilling quarter-final 4:6, 6:4, 6:4, 6:4 against world number six Félix Augier-Aliassime and thus moved into the last four in Paris.
In the game for the final, Cobolli will face a fellow countryman on Friday. His opponent will be determined in the subsequent match on the Court Philippe Chatrier between the Italians Matteo Berrettini and Matteo Arnaldi.
Three Italians in the quarterfinals at the same edition of a Grand Slam tournament had never been seen before. The country’s best tennis player, world number one Jannik Sinner, was eliminated in the second round in Paris after a dramatic physical collapse.
The match to read in the ticker:
Félix Auger-Aliassime – Flavio Cobolli 6:4, 4:6, 4:6, 4:6
4th set, 6:4, 4:6, 4:6, 4:6 – And that’s when it happened. A forehand from Cobolli cannot bring Auger-Aliassime back, a nerve-racking volley at the net and the Italian has three match points. He missed the first one with a double fault, and a few spectators were already cheering. But they can do that after the next rally. Auger-Aliassime returns a serve, but he can no longer reach his opponent’s forehand cross. Afterwards, Cobolli lets himself celebrate. For the first time in his career, the 24-year-old is in the last four of a Grand Slam. And rightly so. Cobolli increasingly took control of this match and won the important rallies, while Augier-Aliassime became far too prone to errors after a good start and stayed until the end.
4th set, 6:4, 4:6, 4:6, 4:5 – … and still stays in the match.
4th set, 6:4, 4:6, 4:6, 3:5 – Now things can happen very quickly: Flavio Cobolli is about to reach the semi-finals of the French Open. Another winner from the Italian, his twelfth in this set. With a forehand cross. Now Félix Auger-Aliassime is serving against the loss of the match…
4th set, 6:4, 4:6, 4:6, 3:4 – Auger-Aliassime prevents the next break by a hair’s breadth. But: He needs one himself now if he wants to avoid defeat. It doesn’t look like that at the moment.
4th set, 6:4, 4:6, 4:6, 2:4 – An ace, a forehand winner, and once again mistakes from his opponent – from the “FAA’s point of view,” Cobolli is in danger of pulling away.