Tennis Best Grand Slam Result: Alejandro Tabilo Resolves Drama in Wimbledon Third Round

Chile has a representative in the third round of Wimbledon. It is Alejandro Tabilo (19th ATP), who beat Flavio Cobolli (48th) this Thursday 7-6(4), 7-6(4), 4-6, 4-6 and 6-4. This victory not only allows him to achieve his best result at the All England Tennis Club, but also in one of the four Grand Slams.

Furthermore, this Thursday’s duel pitted two players who are living a dream 2024. During these seven months of the season, both tennis players have changed their careers and their lives. While Jano won two ATP titles, reached a Masters 1000 semi-final and climbed to 19th place in the world, Cobolli, 22, exploded on the circuit, closing the gap to the top 100 of the ranking for the first time and establishing himself at the moment as the brand new 48 in the world. In the meantime, he has also reached the semi-finals of the ATP 250 in Geneva and the quarter-finals in Montpellier, Delray Beach and Eastbourne.

It was during this season that the Italian also became a nightmare for Chilean tennis players, adding until this duel at Wimbledon, a record of three victories and narrow defeats against the nationals so far this year. He first beat Nicolás Jarry in the first round of the Australian Open and three months later he beat Jaime Fillol’s grandson again in the debut of the Masters 1000 in Madrid. In that same event, he also eliminated Alejandro Tabilo.

This is why Jano came out determined on the English grass. With the advantage of having won the ATP in Mallorca less than a week ago and having eliminated the local Daniel Evans (60th) in the first round of the British Grand Slam, the Chilean found an aggressive game full of variations, the best way to counter a tennis player who, although not a specialist on the surface, does a lot of damage with his groundstrokes.

And despite the resistance of the Florentine, the best racket in the country managed to make the difference in the tie-break, winning a hard-fought first set. This equality was the tone of the match, to the point that the second round was defined according to the same codes as the first round: 7-4 for the Chilean in the best of seven points.

The problem is that this parity was broken against the Chilean at the beginning of the third set. In the first game, he was unable to hold his serve and suffered a break that ultimately tipped the balance in favor of Cobolli, who clenched his fist at 6-4.

In this way, the drama was settled for the fourth set. The Italian, grown emotionally and physically, raised the level, continually putting the Toronto native in difficulty, who even in the seventh game had to save three break points. A complex scenario that ended in the next change of service. The 19th in the world was unable to hold the serve and ended up giving Cobolli the opportunity to close the set. Something that was not wasted.

Without any margin, in the fifth set, the fight was total. Tabilo resisted two break points in his second service game and then took advantage of a disconnection from his rival to complete a penalty that put him at 3-1 and served. A joy that lasted only a few minutes, because the 48th in the world was broken again at the first opportunity he had.

The parity thus extended until the tenth game, where the left-hander managed to break again and secure the match after almost four hours of play. In this way, the Chilean manages to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career, surpassing the second rounds he reached at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2022. He also responds: what Nicolas Jarry achieved last year, who also reached the top 32 of the tennis cathedral.

In the third round he will face the American Taylor Fritz (12th), who has just beaten Arthur Rinderknech (76th) 6-4, 6-4, 3-6 and 6-4. The California native appears to be one of the players with the best results on grass in recent times, reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2022 and winning the ATP 250 in Eastbourne three times (2019, 2022 and 2024). In addition, this year and in 2023 he was a finalist at the Queen’s ATP 500.