It seemed that Ben Shelton would wait to wait for his 100th win at tour level after he lags 3-5 in the last set against Flavio Cobolli on Sunday evening in the National Bank Open presented by Rogers. But the American, who had not created a breaking point since the last game set, shot the piece and sprinted through the finish line for a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (1) victory.
Now 100-69 in his career at tour level, Shelton the eighth man was born in the 21st century and the ninth active American to reach 100-wins Mark. He will then look for a new milestone-being first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final when he takes on Alex de Minaur in his fourth quarter final at prestigious level.
“Really difficult match. I was down and out, because I was a break in the third, the way he played,” said Shelton after the game. “I gave myself a second chance and I did it well, run a little from there. A really difficult opponent for me, someone who got me in three sets after I won the first set twice.”
The result leveled the Lexus ATP Head2head between the friends on 2-2, with Shelton also earned a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) victory in Acapulco this season. Cobolli succeeded in limiting Shelton’s explosive game and dragging the American to rallies for a large part of the game, but Shelton started to beat the piece with confidence and forced the Italian to save a match point to reach the decisive tie-break.
“I thought I did a really good job and found a way to place the return in the court in the game. I struggled with my two biggest weapons, the serve and the first ball Forehand,” Shelton said. “Eventually I come to the end, I think a lot about my mental resilience and my ability to be scrappy at those moments, even more than my actual game.”
Shelton was in his third consecutive quarter-final after he reached that phase in Wimbledon and went to the semis in Washington last week in Washington, DC, he is 16-7 on hard courts this year, including his run to the Semi final of the Australian Open.
Cobolli was denied the biggest victory of his career by PIF ATP ranking against the world No. 7. The Italian sought his first top 10 victory in a completed match, after he had not defeated. 9 Holger Rune via retirement in Madrid in April.
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