Flavio Cobolli is into his first Grand Slam semifinal after outlasting Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in a Roland-Garros quarterfinal on Wednesday, a result that also secured an all-Italian finalist at Roland-Garros 2026. The 10th seed had to come from behind to do it, turning a match that slipped away early into the biggest win of his career.
That is why Cobolli’s name now sits at the center of the draw. The Italian will meet the winner of Matteo Berrettini and Matteo Arnaldi in the last four, and either way the tournament will have an Italian in the final. For Cobolli, it is also a top-10 debut, the kind of milestone that changes how the rest of the clay season looks.
Wednesday’s match was played in blustery conditions before the roof closed as light rain fell outside, and the weather seemed to belong to Auger-Aliassime at first. The No. 4 seed took the opening set and led 3-1 in the second before Cobolli steadied himself, won five of the next six games to level the match, and then broke at 3-4 in the third to seize control.
Cobolli later said he went to the toilet to think a bit and change something after the first set, adding that he tried to breathe on the changeover and not watch his team because he felt they were more nervous than him. He said he simply tried to stay calm and play his tennis, and that once he settled, he felt he was able to play his best tennis.
For Auger-Aliassime, the loss was another hard stop at a major. He had reached last year’s US Open semifinal, but he had gone beyond the second round only four times in his past 15 majors. He arrived in Paris saying his goal was to lift the trophy at the end of the fortnight, but Cobolli shut that path down before it could gather force.
The wider draw has opened in Cobolli’s favor, with the departures of world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic and the absence of Carlos Alcaraz already reshaping the tournament. Cobolli has taken advantage of that opening one match at a time, and now the Italian who came through Zach Svajda in the previous round is one win from the final and from making this run feel even bigger.
