Acapulco
\n Tiafoe mounts heroic comeback to reach Acapulco final: ‘Stars aligned’<\/p>\n
American to face Cobolli for ATP 500 crown<\/p>\n
February 28, 2026<\/p>\n
Mextenis<\/p>\n
Frances Tiafoe is aiming for his first ATP Tour trophy since 2023.
\n By ATP Staff<\/p>\n
Frances Tiafoe<\/a> is known to produce entertaining tennis, and he did just that Friday at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nThe eighth-seeded American escaped countryman Brandon Nakashima<\/a> 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 in a dramatic topsy-turvy battle in Acapulco, where the American is one win away from his biggest ATP Tour trophy.<\/p>\n \nNakashima nervously served for the match at 6-5 in the second set, when Tiafoe earned a 15\/40 lead and clinched the break with a net-cord winner. Tiafoe had another scare in the tie-break, during which he led 6\/3 before being two points from defeat at 6\/6.<\/p>\n \nThe No. 28 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, Tiafoe converted one of his four break chances in the opening game of the decider. Deflating the hopes of Nakashima with a double break later that set, Tiafoe eventually improved to 6-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against the 24-year-old, sealing the victory after two hours and 49 minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredible. The stars definitely aligned,\u201d Tiafoe said. \u201cThings started to make sense when I was down, a couple of net cords. I made every return at 5-6 [in the second set]. Obviously not feeling the best, but just competing and battling \u2014 sometimes you get lucky. Played great tennis in the third.<\/p>\n \u201cNever say die. I was ready to empty the tank and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n \nIt was not Tiafoe’s first dramatic win this week. The 28-year-old saved two match points in the second round to survive Aleksandar Kovacevic<\/a>. Seeking his fourth tour-level crown, Tiafoe will face fifth seed Flavio Cobolli<\/a> in Saturday’s final.<\/p>\n Cobolli earned a hard-fought win of his own right when he dispatched Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic<\/a> 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 in a two-hour, 26-minute semi-final. The 23-year-old trailed 1-3 in the decider before tallying five of the next six games to advance.<\/p>\n Facing two break points at 3-3 in the decider, Cobolli crushed serve plus-one forehand winners on back-to-back points to escape danger. Cobolli again held his nerve after failing to serve out the match at 5-3, quickly rebounding to earn a 0\/40 lead the following game. He converted his second match point and raised his arms in relief.<\/p>\n \u201cWe played an incredible match,\u201d said Cobolli. \u201cI\u2019m really happy to be in the final for the first time here in Mexico. I think we both played an amazing match. I was a little bit lucky at the end, because at the crucial points sometimes you need luck. I\u2019m really proud of myself because it wasn\u2019t easy to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n Cobolli is the third Italian to reach three ATP 500 finals since the series began in 2009, joining Jannik Sinner<\/a> (9) and Fabio Fognini<\/a> (3). Should Cobolli win the Acapulco crown, he could surpass his career-high No. 17. Tiafoe leads Cobolli 2-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Acapulco Tiafoe mounts heroic comeback to reach Acapulco final: ‘Stars aligned’ American to face Cobolli for ATP 500…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-509462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}