Cobolli keeps cool to down Altmaier in Hamburg

p a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/flavio-cobolli/c0e9/overview'Flavio Cobolli/a overcame second-set disappointment to notch a first-round win Monday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/hamburg/414/overview'Hamburg Open/a. /p

p The Italian defeated home hope a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniel-altmaier/ae14/overview'Daniel Altmaier/a 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 on his debut at the ATP 500. Cobolli let slip a match point at 6/5 in the second-set tie-break, but held his nerve in the decider to set a second-round meeting with eighth seed a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zhizhen-zhang/z371/overview" target="_blank"Zhang Zhizhen/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/thiago-seyboth-wild/sx91/overview'Thiago Seyboth Wild/a. /p

p ldquo;Irsquo;m so happy for the win. I think itrsquo;s never easy to play with Daniel, in his country,rdquo; said Cobolli after prevailing in his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Altmaier. ldquo;I donrsquo;t think I played a really good match, but it is never easy to come back [to clay] after a month on grass courts. It is a pleasure to play here in Hamburg, on my favourite surface, so Irsquo;m really happy for this win and ready for the next round.rdquo; /p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"C????BOLLI ????????a href="https://twitter.com/cobollifla?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@cobollifla/a edges Altmaier 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 with tennis like this!a href="https://twitter.com/hamburgopenatp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@hamburgopenatp/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HamburgOpenATP500?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#HamburgOpenATP500/a a href="https://t.co/HNMzOCKhiJ"pic.twitter.com/HNMzOCKhiJ/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1812832825441173961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"July 15, 2024/a/blockquote

script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

p Cobolli is now 6-1 in opening rounds at tour-level clay events this year, with his only first-round defeat coming against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/overview'Rafael Nadal/a in Barcelona. The 2023 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/next-gen-atp-finals/7696/overview'Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF/a competitor is 20-17 for the year overall. /p

p Despite Altmaierrsquo;s defeat, there was a victory for the home fans to cheer on Monday in Hamburg. a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/maximilian-marterer/mn13/overview'Maximilian Marterer/a overcame a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/soonwoo-kwon/kf17/overview'Soonwoo Kwon/a 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-5 for his second tour-level win of the season. The 29-year-old lefty next plays fourth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/francisco-cerundolo/c0au/overview'Francisco Cerundolo/a, who claimed five service breaks in a 7-5, 6-4 win over fellow Argentine a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/francisco-comesana/c0df/overview'Francisco Comesana/a, who recently reached the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a third round./p

p a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/laslo-djere/db63/overview'Laslo Djere/a fell just short of lifting the Hamburg trophy in 2023, when he reached the championship match before losing to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a. The Serbian began this yearrsquo;s campaign strongly by defeating a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zizou-bergs/bu13/overview'Zizou Bergs/a 6-3, 7-6(4). /p

p The 29-year-old Djere converted two of three break points he earned, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to set a second-round encounter with fifth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-fils/f0f1/overview'Arthur Fils/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jaume-munar/mu94/overview'Jaume Munar/a. /p

p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p