Ben Shelton insists everything is ‘good’ between him and Flavio Cobolli after the two shared a heated exchange following their fourth round match at the Canadian Open.
The American fourth seed battled past Cobolli 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(1), after almost two-and-a-half hours of play at the Masters 1000 event. It was during the decisive tiebreaker when the match got tense after Shelton saw a gesture made by his opponent and believed it was intended for him. After he sealed the victory, the duo got involved in an argument at the net.
Their discussion continued on the sidelines of the court, in which Cobolli explained that his gesture wasn’t directed at Shelton and said he was frustrated with his performance. Cobolli was leading the final set 5-3 but got broken when serving for the match.
“I served for the three-hour match, you can understand, if I do something with you. But it’s not always with you. You understand me? Because I didn’t want to fight with you,” he said.
“You deserved to win this match, I know. But you can understand if I do something after three hours of the match.”
Speaking about the incident during his on-court interview, Shelton later accepted his rival’s explanation.
“He just made a gesture in the tiebreaker and asked him about it. He said it wasn’t towards me, so we’re cool.” Shelton commented.
The world No.7 was asked again about what happened on court during his press conference, but was quick to shut down any hype surrounding what happened.
“We talked about it. He said it wasn’t towards me. We’re good. We talked about it in the locker room, so I’m not going to answer any more questions about that. There’s no story, we’re good, that’s it,” he told reporters.
22-year-old Shelton has become only the eighth man born in the 21st century to win 100 Tour-level matches. He is through to his fourth Masters 1000 quarter-final, where he will take on Alex de Minaur, who is currently on an eight-match winning streak. De Minaur defeated Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
“I’m really excited. It’s our first matchup,” Shelton said of facing the Australian.
“We’ve had some competitive practice sets. He puts it on the line in practice as well, that’s one of the things that I love about him.
“I love playing against some of the best players in the world in the late stages of tournaments. He’s playing amazing tennis.”
Fritz sets new record
Elsewhere at the tournament, Taylor Fritz has achieved a new milestone by becoming the first American player to have reached the quarter-final or better at all nine Masters 1000 events. He set the record after ousting Jiri Lehecka 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 7-6(5). Neither player was broken throughout the three-hour showdown, with Fritz saving all nine break points he faced.
“I think just in the end [it was about] really accepting what was there for me tonight,” Fritz said afterwards. “Luckily for me, I was serving really, really well tonight. He was too.
“When it came down to that tie-break, I really bailed myself out with a lot of first serves, and then just trying to put balls in the court and not try any shots that, despite how badly I wanted to try to be aggressive, just be disciplined and just make the balls that I felt like I could make.”
Fritz will face Andrey Rublev in the last eight, who was leading Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 3-0, before the Spaniard retired.
“I don’t know what exactly happened with him. He told me when we were shaking hands that he’s completely exhausted. But we didn’t have time to talk, so I don’t really know,” Rublev told Ziggo Sport.
Fritz’s best result at each Masters event
- Won Indian Wells [2022]
- SFs of Miami [2025]
- SFs of Monte Carlo [2023]
- SFs of Madrid [2024]
- QFs of Rome [2024]
- QFs of Canada [2025] – still playing
- QFs of Cincinnati [2022, 2023]
- SFs of Shanghai [2024]
- QFs of Paris [2021]
(source tennis.com)
