Cobolli reaches the first Grand Slam semifinal of his career after a comeback against Auger-Aliassime
Flavio Cobolli achieved the biggest result of his career so far at Roland-Garros 2026 and advanced to the men's singles semifinal after defeating Félix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinal. According to the official Roland-Garros score report, the match was played on Court Philippe-Chatrier in Paris, ended after three hours and 24 minutes of play, and the Italian player, the tournament's tenth seed, won 4:6, 6:4, 6:4, 6:4 against the fourth seed from Canada. Cobolli lost the first set, then came back from a difficult position in the second, took control of the rhythm in long rallies and, until the end of the duel, imposed the tennis that brought him his first place among the final four at a Grand Slam tournament.
The victory is especially important because it came against a player who arrived in Paris as one of the highest-ranked remaining candidates for the final stages of the tournament. In its report, the ATP Tour states that Auger-Aliassime had a chance to reach his third Grand Slam semifinal, but also his first at Roland-Garros, after having defeated Daniel Altmaier, Roman Andrés Burruchaga, Brandon Nakashima and Alejandro Tabilo in the earlier stages of the tournament. Cobolli, on the other hand, confirmed in Paris his status as one of the most pleasant surprises of the men's draw, although as the tenth seed he entered the tournament with a high enough position that his result can no longer be described only as a passing rise.
In the first set, Auger-Aliassime made better use of the windy conditions on the main court. In its match report, ATP states that the Canadian player was more aggressive from the baseline in that part of the encounter, more often found depth with his shots and forced Cobolli into a greater number of errors. The first set belonged to him 6:4, confirming his good start to the duel and opening the possibility of keeping control of the tempo. After that, according to the ATP report, the roof over Court Philippe-Chatrier was closed, which changed the playing conditions and brought a more stable environment for the continuation of the match.
Although the more closed conditions could, in theory, have suited Auger-Aliassime more, as he has often handled indoor rhythm and faster decision-making well in his career, the turning point came at the beginning of the second set. The Canadian led 3:1 and seemed to be continuing to build his advantage, but in the fifth game he lost his serve. The ATP Tour reports that precisely that game marked the change in direction, because Cobolli then gained room to return and began playing more securely, especially through his forehand and defense from deep in the court. The Italian turned the second set in his favor 6:4, equalizing the score and opening a completely new match.
The third set was the most important for the psychological balance of the duel. Cobolli had to defend several dangerous situations on his own serve, but in the key moments he maintained calmness and consistency. ATP states that the Italian player played especially well on points at 30:30, which enabled him to neutralize the pressure and force his opponent into additional risk. When he won the third set 6:4, the balance of power on the court no longer looked like it had in the opening part of the match: Auger-Aliassime found simple points increasingly difficult to come by, while Cobolli increasingly won rallies decided by patience and movement.
In the fourth set, Cobolli finished the job without a dramatic drop. According to the official Roland-Garros result, he also won that set 6:4, completing the comeback and securing the semifinal. In the closing phase, he remained sufficiently firm on serve, and in rallies he continued to force Auger-Aliassime to play one more shot. Such an outcome showed how decisive the change of rhythm from the second set had been: after losing his initial control, the Canadian player was no longer able to regain the momentum from the first set, while Cobolli gradually built confidence and tactical clarity.
After the match, the ATP Tour announced that Cobolli had reached the semifinal of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. The same report emphasized that this was his first victory against a player from the Top 10 ranking at one of the four biggest tournaments, giving the result additional weight. The Italian reached the quarterfinal after not losing a set in his first three matches, and in the round of 16 against Zachary Svajda he had to survive a far more demanding finish. Roland-Garros had earlier announced that he won that duel 6:2, 6:3, 6:7(3), 7:6(5), securing his first quarterfinal appearance in Paris.
Cobolli had already had important results at ATP level in a professional sense, but this Paris run represents a new step. The ATP Tour describes him as a player who has so far won three titles at the highest level, including clay-court titles in Hamburg and Bucharest, but also notes that he has not yet won a tournament above the ATP 500 category. Reaching the Roland-Garros semifinal therefore changes the scale of his expectations, because for the first time it places him in direct contention for a Grand Slam final. At the same time, it confirms his ability to raise his level of play in a long best-of-five-set match after an unfavorable start.
According to the ATP report, Cobolli said after the match that he experienced the encounter as the opportunity of his career and that, in the continuation, he decided to give everything he had. In a separate ATP post about reactions after the victory, the Italian player described reaching the semifinal as a dream come true, but stressed that he wanted to keep the same daily routine and not allow the magnitude of the moment to take him out of focus. Such an approach matches the impression from the court: after a more nervous first set, Cobolli did not look for quick solutions, but systematically built the point, spread the court with his forehand and used his mobility as a weapon against Auger-Aliassime's stronger serve and first strike.
An additional element of his performance was the way he accepted the conditions on the court. ATP reported that Cobolli described the first set as extremely difficult because of the wind, and after the roof was closed and a short break he found a clearer plan. This detail also shows the importance of adaptation in matches at Grand Slam level: a change of conditions does not have to decide the winner by itself, but it can give an opportunity to the player who more quickly recognizes what needs to be changed. It was precisely during that period that Cobolli stopped being the player reacting to his opponent's initiative and became the one determining the direction of the points.
For Auger-Aliassime, the defeat is difficult also because of the context of this year's Roland-Garros. The ATP Tour states that, after Jannik Sinner's early elimination, the Canadian remained the highest-seeded player in the upper half of the draw, while Carlos Alcaraz was absent from Paris because of injury, and Novak Đoković was also no longer in the tournament. In such circumstances, the fourth seed had a realistic chance to reach the final stages of a tournament that remained extremely open in the men's competition. However, after leading 6:4, 3:1, he failed to maintain control of the encounter.
In his reaction after the duel, the ATP Tour reports that Auger-Aliassime admitted he had missed an important opportunity in the fifth game of the second set and that, after that, Cobolli played better. The Canadian player also pointed out that he was not satisfied with the way he finished the clay-court part of the season, although at Roland-Garros he managed to reach the quarterfinal. According to ATP, he arrived in Paris with a 4-4 record on clay in 2026 and with his best result in that part of the season being a quarterfinal at the Masters 1000 tournament in Monte Carlo. Roland-Garros, at least until the middle of the second set against Cobolli, looked like an opportunity to improve that impression and go one step further in Paris for the first time.
Earlier in his career, Auger-Aliassime had already twice played in a Grand Slam semifinal, both times at the US Open, in 2021 and 2025, as stated by the player profile on the official Roland-Garros website. In Paris this year, he had the chance to expand that run and prove that he could go equally deep on clay as well. However, in the quarterfinal he lacked stability in the moments when Cobolli began returning more balls into the court and taking time away from him. This became especially evident after the second set, when the rallies grew longer and the Canadian was no longer getting enough free points from the opening shot.
The Guardian emphasized in its match report that the defeat was especially painful because Auger-Aliassime looked ready in the first part of the duel to take advantage of the open section of the draw, but after losing the lead in the second set he lost clear initiative. Such an assessment matches what the course of the encounter and the reactions after the match showed. Cobolli did not win only thanks to energy or inspiration, but also because of tactical discipline with which he gradually reduced his opponent's space. When Auger-Aliassime was left without the simple serve-and-forehand combination, the Italian began taking the advantage in points played from movement.
Cobolli will play Matteo Arnaldi in the semifinal, which means Roland-Garros 2026 will have an all-Italian men's semifinal. The ATP Tour announced that Arnaldi advanced in the other quarterfinal from the same part of the draw after Matteo Berrettini retired at 7:5, 5:2. This confirmed that an Italian player will play in the men's singles final, regardless of the semifinal outcome. ATP also emphasizes that this is the first all-Italian men's semifinal at a Grand Slam tournament in history.
That fact additionally underlines the depth of Italian tennis in this period. In its report, ATP recalls that two Italian players had previously been in the semifinal of a Grand Slam tournament in 1960 at Roland-Garros, when Nicola Pietrangeli and Orlando Sirola were in the final stages, and again last year in Paris, when Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti reached the semifinal. This year's outcome is different because Cobolli and Arnaldi are meeting each other, so an Italian finalist is already guaranteed. In the same context, ATP recalls that the last Italian winner of Roland-Garros in men's singles was Adriano Panatta in 1976.
For Cobolli, the semifinal against a compatriot brings a different kind of pressure. On the one hand, he has already achieved the biggest result of his career and can play with the feeling that he has fulfilled a major goal. On the other hand, by entering a historic Italian duel and with the final within reach, the importance of the next match will be even greater. ATP conveyed his message that he wants to keep calm, live in the moment and continue with the same habits that have brought him to this stage of the tournament. In a sporting sense, the ability to remain in that mental framework will be one of the key points of the semifinal.
Cobolli's entry into the semifinal is also significant for the ATP ranking. The ATP Tour states that, with his victory over Auger-Aliassime, he temporarily climbed to tenth place in the live rankings and could make his Top 10 debut if Jakub Menšík does not win the title. This is an important threshold in the career of every tennis player, because it confirms continuity of results, not only one successful week. In Cobolli's case, the Paris result builds on earlier successes on clay, but at the same time surpasses them in importance and visibility.
In tournament terms, Cobolli showed that he can win different types of matches. In the earlier rounds he had convincing performances, in the round of 16 he had to survive an opponent's surge in the closing phase, and in the quarterfinal he had to turn around a match against the fourth seed. Such a run is important because Grand Slam tournaments rarely offer only one pattern of victory. A player who reaches the final stages must know how to win a match when playing fluently, but also when conditions, the opponent or his own nerves require a change of plan during the encounter.
For Auger-Aliassime, the continuation of the season now shifts toward grass and the second part of the year. ATP reported that, after the defeat, the Canadian player wants to take time for a mental reset and assess the rest of the season. That tone shows how difficult this defeat was, but also how much the expectations around him had grown in a week in which the upper half of the draw opened up. The Roland-Garros quarterfinal remains his best result in Paris, but the way he lost after an early lead will leave more questions than satisfaction.
Roland-Garros 2026 continues with the men's semifinals, where there is no longer room for cautious testing. With his victory over Auger-Aliassime, Cobolli showed that he belongs in the final stages, but the next duel brings a new challenge: a match against a player who knows him well, at a tournament where every additional victory is historic. After the comeback on Philippe-Chatrier, his first Grand Slam semifinal is no longer only a story of surprise, but of a player who found his game, calmness and the result of his career at the right moment.
Sources:- Roland-Garros – official score report of the quarterfinal match Félix Auger-Aliassime - Flavio Cobolli, result, court and duration of the encounter (link)- ATP Tour – report on Cobolli's victory over Auger-Aliassime and advancement to his first Grand Slam semifinal (link)- ATP Tour – official overview of Roland-Garros 2026 results from 3 June and confirmation of the semifinal pairing (link)- ATP Tour – Flavio Cobolli's reaction after the victory and description of his preparation for the first Grand Slam semifinal (link)- ATP Tour – Félix Auger-Aliassime's reaction after the quarterfinal defeat at Roland-Garros (link)- Roland-Garros – Félix Auger-Aliassime profile with basic information about his career and Grand Slam tournament appearances (link)- The Guardian – report and analysis of the Cobolli - Auger-Aliassime quarterfinal in the broader context of the men's draw (link)