After a poor start to the 2026 season, Flavio Cobolli has turned a corner.
The Italian, who lost three consecutive first-round matches to start the year, captured his first title of 2026 on Saturday by beating Frances Tiafoe in the Acapulco Open final.
Cobolli, who spearheaded Italy’s 2025 Davis Cup charge, has now won three ATP Tour titles, following triumphs in Hamburg and Bucharest last year.
Following his landmark ATP 500 victory, Cobolli has achieved a career-high ranking of world number 15.
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Luciano Darderi, Cobolli’s compatriot, also won an ATP title last weekend. The Italian won the Santiago Open in Chile, beating Yannick Hanfmann in the final.
Flavio Cobolli and Luciano Darderi make Italian history
Flavio Cobolli and Luciano Darderi have combined to achieve a feat not witnessed on the professional circuit for 49 years.
As per statisticians OptaAce, two Italians have won ATP events in the same week on different surfaces for the second time in the Open Era, after Paolo Bertolucci [pictured below] and Corrado Barazzutti in April 1977.
Bertolucci won the 1977 Florence Open, beating Britain’s John Feaver 6–4, 6–1, 7–5 in the final.
Barazzutti captured the Charlotte Open title in the same week, beating American player Eddie Dibbs 7-6, 6-0 in the showpiece event.
Bertolucci is a retired Italian tennis player who achieved a career-high singles ranking of world number 12. His best results at a Grand Slam event occurred in 1977 and 1978, when he reached the US Open and French Open semi-finals.
As for Barazzutti, he won the French Open Boys Singles title in 1971, before achieving a career-high ranking of world number seven.
Barazzutti was also part of the Italian team that won the 1976 Davis Cup in Chile.
Returning to the present day, Cobolli and Darderi are both expected to compete in Indian Wells – the opening event of the ‘sunshine swing.’
Luciano Darderi’s impressive start to 2026
On Saturday, Luciano Darderi clinched his fifth ATP title after defeating Yannick Hanfmann 7-6, 7-5.
Darderi, the world number 21, gained 200 ATP ranking points at the event and is now only 66 points off the top 20.
After winning the final, Darderi said: “It’s feeling really great. I didn’t expect to win this week here because I never played more than the quarter-final here, so I’m very happy.
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“It’s my second final of the year, so taking a title early is very impressive and I take a lot of confidence for the rest of the year.”
Darderi also made the final of the 2026 Argentina Open, but lost to home favourite Francisco Cerundolo in the final.
