A problem on the right arm denies Flavio, already tried by the battles of the previous rounds, to play the derby all the way. First eighth in New York for the Tuscan, against Munar or Bergs
The derby that was not there was smiling at Musetti, which for the first time in his career reaches the round of 16 of the US Open. But the game with his friend Cobolli, with whom he has shared the competitive journey since childhood (they are the same age) even arrives at the end: after the 6-3 6-2 of Lorenzo in the first two sets, on the 2-0 of the third Flavio, back from two marathons in five sets and with the muscles of the right arm in flames, retires. Very nice at the end of the match the sincere embrace between the two and the applause that the winner called for his defeated friend: “Flavio had an incredible season, he grew up very much. Today it was seen that he was struggling to the service in the second set. I am sorry to finish like this, clearly I’m glad to be for the first time in the round of 16 at the US Open after a slightly complicated month”.
The match
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The game lasts only one set, the first, that is, until Cobolli has the energies to try to contrast a museums in anyway in an extra -luxury version. The number 8 of the world, in this tournament, has been able to apply a tactical principle so far that on career cement had always struggled to metabolize, that is, greater aggression with the straight. It is the blow with which Flavio moves, he forces him to row from behind the basic line and then open the field to winning solutions. Cobbo, aware that the cobweb from the bottom would reward the rival and dangerously stretch the exchanges, often seek the quick solution when it is at the service, but grants break balls in every joke. Won the first set, Musetti still rises of conviction and quality, while Flavio also explores the net to escape the suffocating pressure of the muzzle, however with little success. His last jolly arrives in the sixth game of the second set, when he recovers one of the two breaks of disadvantage in the riot of the Arminstrong who would like a game, but the pair of prolonged exchanges with which he gets the game definitively drains him. And so, at the beginning of the third set, dad Stefano, his coach, makes him understand that there is no need to be the hero and therefore the retreat arrives: “I could no longer keep the racket in his hand, I would not have wanted to withdraw because I seem to diminish the success of Lorenzo who proved stronger than me”. Musetti, in the round of 16, will have one between Bergs or Munar: the dream of a fabulous derby with Sinner in the quarterfinals is taking shape.