The third round heats up at the Cincinnati Masters, as Italian Flavio Cobolli tries to get his first win over Belgium’s Alexander Blockx and France’s Arthur Fils takes on in-form Jiri Lehecka of Czechia.
(7) Flavio Cobolli vs. (28) Alexander Blockx
These two have already met this year, in Monte-Carlo back in April — and Alexander Blockx handled it 6-3, 6-3. Blockx said afterward that the top 20 and top 10 are “no longer a utopia” for him — and at a career-high world No. 32, he isn’t wrong. Hard courts remain the open question. He has the chops on clay, but has proven little on hard courts so far.
Flavio Cobolli hit world No. 8 on August 3 and has spent the two weeks since looking like a man who would rather be somewhere else. Yannick Hanfmann bounced him out of Montreal in his opener, and a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win over Miomir Kecmanovic at the Cincinnati Open was an awful lot of labor for a top-10 seed. The Italian’s happiest surface is clay; his one hard-court title this year came in Acapulco in February, and he has not put two convincing performances back-to-back since Wimbledon. Showers and thunderstorms are forecast after 2:00 pm., and stop-start afternoons tend to favor the player carrying fewer expectations. Blockx has already proven he can beat this man, and he will fancy his chances of doing it again. It wouldn’t be a surprise for Cobolli to make an early exit.
Cheryl pick: Blockx in 3
Ricky pick: Blockx in 3
(21) Arthur Fils vs. (9) Jiri Lehecka
Arthur Fils and Jiri Lehecka have met five times, three of them this season — which is more familiarity than either of them probably wants. The Frenchman leads the overall head-to-head 3-2 and took the most recent one 6-3, 6-4 in the Madrid quarterfinals, but Lehecka owns a 2-1 edge on hard courts. And hard court is the split that matters on Monday. The Czech needed three sets to get past Matteo Berrettini, and he got there with 13 aces and 50 winners — which is Lehecka playing exactly the way Lehecka has to play to beat quality opponents. He is 13-5 at Masters 1000 level in 2026 with a Miami final on the ledger, so the big rooms do not bother him.
Fils owns the better season on paper at 27-10, with a Barcelona title captured over Andrey Rublev in the final. He followed a Montreal quarterfinal with a comfortable 7-6(5), 6-1 win over Hanfmann on Saturday. Fils is playing well right now. These are two players who know each other far too well, and the bigger server generally wins the tight sets. I’m giving the nod to Fils.
Cheryl pick: Fils in 3
Ricky pick: Fils in 2
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