Day 2 Preview: Will Fils Or Cobolli Remain Undefeated?

Arthur Fils and Flavio Cobolli will meet in a clash of undefeated players Wednesday afternoon at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM in Jeddah.

The top-seeded Fils made a good start to his run at the 21-and-under tournament on Tuesday when he battled past Italian Luca Nardi in five sets. The Frenchman will try to maintain his momentum against Nardi’s countryman, Cobolli, with both stars 1-0 in Green Group. Fils admitted to having to adjust to the special ruleset, including no warmup on court immediately before the match.

“It’s a mental adjustment, but it’s also a physical one,” Fils said. “Normally I never play before a match. Today I had to play right before with my coaches.”

Cobolli, who last month cracked the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time, defeated 2022 Milan semi-finalist Dominic Stricker in four sets.

In an evening session match between the other two undefeated players, second seed Luca Van Assche will take on Serbian Hamad Medjedovic, who closed the event’s opening day with a thrilling five-set win against American Alex Michelsen that ended at 12:49 a.m. local time. 

Medjedovic will take confidence from holding off Michelsen’s comeback attempt from two sets down. The Serbian is coached by former World No. 12 Viktor Troicki.

Van Assche pushed Medjedovic’s countryman, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, to three sets in Banja Luka earlier this year one round after upsetting former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka.

In the afternoon session, Nardi will play Stricker and in the evening Shelbayh will face Michelsen.

ORDER OF PLAY – WEDNESDAY, 29 NOVEMBER 29 2023

CENTRE COURT start 3 p.m.
[3] D. Stricker (SUI) vs [7] L. Nardi (ITA)

Not Before 4 p.m.
[1] A. Fils (FRA) vs [5] F. Cobolli (ITA)

Not Before 8 p.m.
[4] A.Michelsen (USA) vs [WC] A. Shelbayh (JOR) [8] [2] L. Van Assche (FRA) vs [6] H. Medjedovic (SRB)