Another Italian Duel

First Passaro and now Musetti, Cobolli is surely seeing his friends a lot here in New York...

There have been a lot of epic matches so far at this USO, and Cobolli opened with a very fun five-setter against his friend Passaro, who came out swinging! Next up, he had an absolutely fantastic match against Brooksby, filled with drama and exciting tennis. Cobolli came out a bit flat and struggled to handle the awkwardness and flatness of Brooksby's game before he started to make some inroads (especially by attacking his weak second serve a lot more, allowing him to get on the front foot straight away). I really liked how Cobolli started to adapt tactically, which allowed him to take more control with his forehand a bit deeper inside the court. Cobolli did have a medical timeout for blisters and looked a little bit bothered during periods of the match. With the blisters potentially becoming an issue, as well as over 8 hours on court in 3 days (with a lot of running and intense rallies), there are definitely questions about his physical state. Musetti's path to here has been a lot easier, with a rather straightforward win against servebot Mpetshi Perricard and a very fast win against the wildly out-of-form Goffin.

Just like in the upcoming Altmaier/De Minaur match, there are huge contrasts in the amount of time spent on court, with one player having fought two huge battles while the other one has cruised through in both their matches. Add to that, both players who had the easier path are extremely solid from the baseline; it's a huge hill to climb! I do want to say that Cobolli is a fitness monster, and we have seen him consistently play good matches even after going through absolute battles beforehand. This time, the blisters are another reason for some extra concern, though. Musetti is at his weakest on hard courts and still hasn't really reached his top form, and we know just how prone he is to being rushed. So, the fact that this is played on medium-fast hard court and not clay, at least, is good for Cobolli! They are close friends, so we can expect them to be very familiar with each other's games here. I expect Cobolli to come out very aggressively here, which could catch Musetti off guard at the start, before he is able to adjust or grind him down properly. If both players were equally fresh for this one, I would prefer Cobolli on a hard court! However, we must acknowledge that he has several factors working against him here (he also played a significant amount of tennis throughout the year, including many long matches)...