Flavio Cobolli beats Frances Tiafoe to claim the Acapulco crown, joining Alcaraz and Sinner in the feat… | ATP Tour
acapulco
Cobolli beat Tiafoe to take the Acapulco crown, joining Alcaraz and Sinner in accomplishing the feat…
Italian hits career high in Monday’s PIF ATP Rankings
March 1, 2026
Manuel Velazquez/Getty Images
Flavio Coboli beat Francis Tiafoe 7-6(4), 6-4 in the Acapulco final.
Written by ATP Staff
Flavio Cobolli claimed his first hard-court ATP Tour title and third overall at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presented by HSBC on Saturday. The Italian, seeded fifth in Acapulco, defeated Frances Tiafoe 7-6(4), 6-4 in the championship match.
Coboli’s forehand was spot on and he showed off his groundstrokes throughout the match. Thanks to his title, Coboli will rise to a career-high No. 15 in Monday’s PIF ATP rankings.
“I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a kid,” Coboly said. “For a game like this, playing on center court, people cheering me on. I’m very proud, not only of myself, but of the people who work for me – my dad, my family, the rest of my team. They’re going to help me a lot.”
The 23-year-old is the fourth person born in the 2000s to win the ATP 500 title on multiple surfaces, following Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Arthur Fils.
Although Coboli had not lost to Tiafoe in either of their previous two Lexus ATP meetings, Coboli showed no signs of hesitation. Shortly after losing set point at 5-4 in the first set, he fell 1/3 behind in the tie-break, but scored six of the last seven points to gain a set advantage.
Tiafoe didn’t get a break opportunity until the eighth game of the second set, and seized the third break opportunity in that game to tie the score at 4-4. That provided a glimmer of hope for Tiafoe, who had a dramatic run of wins this week, saving two match points to defeat Alexander Kovacevic in the second round. Tiafoe also needed a strong performance in the semifinals to overcome Brandon Nakajima, who won in straight sets before the eighth seed launched a comeback.
Such dramatic scenes will not happen in the finals. Coboli remained calm after losing serve, successfully broke serve, and successfully held serve to win after 2 hours and 9 minutes.
“I think I deserve it for the way I work off the field,” Coboly said. “After the loss, I was working on the field again and I just want to say I’m very proud of myself. Today was a great game and I think it was the best of the tournament for me. I’ve never beaten my opponent. [Frances] Before today, so I’m happy. “
Last year, Coboli won the ATP 250 event in Bucharest and the ATP 500 event in Hamburg. He is the youngest Acapulco champion since Dominic Thiem in 2016 at the age of 22.
