Insane Drama! Ben Shelton rallied in the third set to outlast Italy’s Flavio Cobolli for a QF spot at the 2025 Canadian Open. With his 6-4,4-6,7-6(1) win against Cobolli on Sunday night, Shelton has now secured his 100th tour-level win, and guess what? That wasn’t the only thing that was dramatic about the match. In the fourth game of the second set, Cobolli held serve after receiving treatment on his legs during the changeover. Clearly, the Italian didn’t look too comfortable, and it seemed he was suffering from cramps.

Cobolli was forced to call the physio again in between games five and six. But somehow, he managed to keep fighting in this match and was inches close to depriving Shelton of his win. However, despite putting up a strong show, Flavio Cobolli had to eventually go down to the world number 7. But the drama didn’t end there! Both these players were spotted engaging in a heated exchange at the net after the match. And this fiery ending added more fuel to their fourth meeting on the Tour. What was the fuss all about, though?

Ben Shelton didn’t look quite impressed with Flavio Cobolli’s gesture during the match. And so he confronted him, seeking an explanation. “You went like this,” said Shelton, turning his head sideways in what was an imitation of the gesture. In reply to this, Cobolli said, “It’s not with you. You deserve it, this match, but it’s not always with you.” The American seemed reasonably satisfied with the explanation, “You tell me that. Okay, thank you.” However, they continued chatting on this for a few more minutes before Cobolli eventually made his way out of the stadium. When Ben Shelton was asked to shed light on their chat at the net, he said “He just made a gesture in the tiebreaker in asked him about it. He said it wasn’t towards me, so we’re cool.”

This was Ben Shelton’s second successive victory (the previous one was at the 2025 Mexican Open) against Flavio Cobolli, and with this win, he has now taken his H2H record to 2-2. Last time, after his match against the Italian in Acapulco, Shelton explained the real motivation behind defeating Cobolli in that match. He said, “That was one I wanted really bad…It’s never easy going into a match being 0-2 against somebody. Like I said in Australia, you go 0-3 and they become your daddy, so I was fighting again for that not to happen, and happy with the performance.“

With this win, Shelton is now all set to face the 2025 Citi Open champion, Alex de Minaur, in the QF. What else did the Americans say after booking his spot in the QF, though?

Ben Shelton analyzes his tough battle against Flavio Cobolli

Despite having made plenty of long runs this year, which earned him a major boost in the rankings, Ben Shelton has yet to win a title this season. On the other hand, Alex de Minaur (ranked 8th) recently secured a 5-7,6-1,7-6(3) win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the Citi Open final. This will be Shelton’s first meeting with the Aussie, so considering their form this season, we can surely expect a lot of fireworks in this match.

But talking about his match against Flavio Cobolli, Ben Shelton went on to add, “Really difficult match. I was down and out, being a breakdown in the third, the way that he was playing. I gave myself a second chance, and I did a good job with it, kind of running from there. A really difficult opponent for me, someone who’s gotten me in three sets after I’ve won the first set twice.” He believes he did a good job rallying and finding a way to put returns in the court late in the match. But having said that, Shelton admitted that he was struggling a bit with his two biggest weapons, the serve and the first-ball forehand.

Shelton hit 12 aces against Cobolli, and with the win, he has now become the eighth man born in the 21st century and the ninth active American to reach the 100-wins mark. Can he now reach his first ATP Masters 1000 SF? Well, Shelton has a 16-7 record on hard courts this year, and if he wins the title here, then he’d surpass Novak Djokovic to become the new world number 6. That will surely boost his confidence ahead of the 2025 US Open!