Flavio Cobolli breathes huge sigh of relief with ATP Finals quest not hampered by teary Vienna exit

The end of the ATP season brings much pressure and stress as the best players in the world valiantly battle for the final spots on offer for the ATP Finals. In the Austrian capital, it all looked to be crashing down for Flavio Cobolli, who is attempting to make his debut on home soil. Despite his teary end to a premature Vienna Open campaign, he is expected to be back competing in the near future.

The Italian No.2 is one of a plethora of names setting their sights for Turin and has the upper hand over many of them due to the points buffer he has got. However, nothing is being taken for granted in these remaining tournaments.

Every win is like gold dust to these players, with the slightest hitch in their plans possibly proving detrimental. That seemed to be the case when Cobolli faced off against fellow countryman Matteo Berrettini in the second round of the Vienna Open.

After defeating former ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov in three sets, he would return to the court alongside the man he helped Italy win the Davis Cup Finals with last year. Now, they were rivals. From the off, something was definitely troubling Cobolli. While Berrettini routinely served well, Cobolli was conceding break points.

The breakthrough came in the sixth game as the former Wimbledon finalist managed to get his nose in front. A hold of serve later, and that was that. An abrupt end was called upon as Cobolli opted to retire, having to be comforted by his opponent with the emotions setting in.

After his sudden retirement, Cobolli shared a statement on his Instagram page. “Vienna, I’m sorry to leave like this," he wrote. “I love this tournament and was really looking forward to facing Matteo with all of you in the stands.

"I felt something during my match the other night, but I wanted to give it a go. Today I realised I couldn’t keep going without pushing it too far, so I had to stop. Those tears weren’t from pain. Just emotion, maybe a little stress, and the disappointment of having to leave the court when all I wanted was to stay out there.”

It has been a gruelling 10 months for all the tennis players competing, but especially for Cobolli with the added incentive of Turin, it is almost overwhelming, and it turned out to be like that earlier this week. It was a nervy wait to see what the results detailed following the scans, and he was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

“Today’s scans showed a minor muscle strain,” he wrote on his Instagram story on Friday. “Tomorrow I’ll travel to Paris and do everything I can to play the tournament. I’m working with my team to get back to full fitness as soon as possible and be ready for the weeks ahead.”

He will be competing at the Paris Masters, the final Masters 1000 event of the year, which begins on Monday, 2nd November. Being the fifth seed, he automatically receives a bye into the second round, where either Arthur Gea or a qualifier/special exempt will be his first task.

As things stand, Cobolli is the highest ranked player in the ATP Race not qualified following Daniil Medvedev confirming his return. With Jannik Sinner's absence, that means the Russian joins Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton as the four names already destined for Turin. Cobolli leads Arthur Fils, Frances Tiafoe and Rafael Jodar in the final four provisional qualifying spots, but the wueue behind them are keeping them on their toes.

Alex de Minaur and Taylor Fritz are still competing for glory in Vienna and Basel, respectively, with their semi-finals being played out today. Novak Djokovic is also still a contender, but his abrupt exit at the Swiss Indoors has dented his hopes.

De Minaur currently sits in 10th, 610 points behind Cobolli. That is a very solid buffer, but it could soon be extinguished, especially if both he and Fritz take the ATP 500 titles home. The Paris Masters will be a testing yet tantalising week with each victory and defeat more crucial than ever.