PARIS, May 28 (Xinhua) -- China's Wu Yibing was knocked out in the French Open men's singles second round on Thursday after losing 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to 10th seed Flavio Cobolli of Italy.
It was the second meeting between the two players this season. Cobolli had also defeated Wu in the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 event in Acapulco earlier this year.
"I've faced players with strong defense before, but today many of his returns were very deep, and even some of the high balls were difficult to handle," Wu said. "His serve and baseline game are also more suited to clay, and he controlled the rhythm of the match very well."
Cobolli displayed stronger returning and greater consistency from the baseline throughout the match. The Italian secured the decisive break in the fifth game of the opening set before taking it 6-4.
The second set remained close at 2-2 before Wu suddenly lost momentum, dropping two consecutive games within a few minutes as Cobolli moved ahead and eventually claimed another 6-4 set.
Wu struggled with unforced errors early in the third set and quickly fell behind 4-0. Although the Chinese responded by improving his serve and winning three straight games, Cobolli held firm to close out the match in straight sets after one hour and 53 minutes.
Wu was making only his second main-draw appearance at Roland Garros after first qualifying in 2023. Earlier this week, he defeated American Marcos Giron in straight sets to earn his first career men's singles main-draw victory in Paris.
The 25-year-old said being able to complete most of the clay-court season was itself a positive sign after several injury-plagued seasons.
"Aside from Rome, I managed to play through most of this clay season, and that was already beyond my expectations when the clay swing started," Wu said.
"On clay, you really have to train through those long rallies and even that feeling of being short of breath," he said. "You always hear people say tennis is about making your opponent hit one more shot, and on clay that idea becomes even more important."
Wu's best Grand Slam singles result remains a run to the third round at the 2022 U.S. Open.
With Wu eliminated, Wang Xiyu is the only Chinese singles player remaining in the third round at this year's French Open. She will next face Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva, who stunned second seed Elena Rybakina in one of the biggest upsets of the women's tournament so far.
