Roman tennis star Flavio Cobolli reached the final of the BMW Open in Munich with a commanding straight-sets victory over world number three Alexander Zverev. He then broke down in tears, dedicating his win to a 13-year-old friend who died in Rome just days ago.
The image said everything: a finger pointed skyward, then a towel pressed quickly to the face. Cobolli had already dedicated his quarter-final win to the boy, and after the semi-final victory he spoke plainly about his grief. “Yesterday a friend of mine passed away: he was only 13 years old, gone too soon. This victory is all for him.”
The boy, who attended the same tennis club as Cobolli in Rome, died two days before the match.
A statement performance
Cobolli, seeded fourth, defeated defending champion Zverev 6-3, 6-3 to reach the final of the BMW Open by Bitpanda. The 23-year-old Italian delivered a superb all-round performance, striking 32 winners and losing just eight points on his first serve, a maiden victory over a top-five opponent.
He did not drop a set across the entire week, having beaten Czech Vit Kopriva, Belgian Zizou Bergs and German Diego Dedura on his way to the semi-finals. The German, by contrast, never found his footing. Zverev fired a costly double fault in the opening game of the second set to hand Cobolli a crucial break, and despite solid efficiency on serve, could not reverse the momentum.
For Zverev, it extends a difficult run. The defeat marks a fourth consecutive semi-final loss, having fallen to Sinner at three straight ATP Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo.
The closeness between the two players made the contest all the more charged. “It was one of my best matches ever, against one of my best friends on tour,” Cobolli said afterwards. “He’s very inspiring for me, and he’s a really good guy. His team has helped me a lot during the season. We have a good relationship also with everyone on his team. So it was also a little bit tough to play against him.”
What this means for Cobolli’s career
The victory makes Cobolli just the third player this season to reach ATP Tour finals on both clay and hard courts, joining Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. He also moves up to 12th in the live ATP rankings as he chases his fourth ATP Tour title and third at ATP 500 level. He won his maiden trophy in Bucharest last year and claimed the Acapulco title in February.
Cobolli’s rise puts him level with Ben Shelton for fourth-most ATP 500 finals among players born after 2000, trailing only Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
And it is Shelton who is the man standing in Cobolli’s way, as the American seeks to go one better than last year when he lost the Munich title match to Zverev. The American holds a 3-2 head-to-head lead over Cobolli, having beaten him on all three occasions they met in 2025.
