Flavio Cobolli really made Ben Shelton work for his 100th Tour-level victory on Sunday. Not having created a break point since the final game of the opening set, the American would have had to book an early flight out of The Great White North had it not been for a late surge that carried him to a nervous 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(1) victory against the Italian. Shelton knew how close he had cut it.
“Really difficult match. I was down and out, being a break down in the third, the way that he was playing,” he said after the match. “A really difficult opponent for me, someone who’s gotten me in three sets after I’ve won the first set twice,” he added. Well, he’s not going to catch a break from ‘difficult’ opponents anytime soon. As he contends for his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Toronto, the pat