Flavio Cobolli is on his way to the Nitto ATP Finals, and he did not have to hit a ball to get there.

The Italian qualified mathematically on Tuesday evening when Casper Ruud beat Rafael Jodar 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters, closing the last realistic path any rival had to overtake him in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. Cobolli had already withdrawn from the Paris draw with 3,690 points and now sits sixth in the field heading to the Inalpi Arena from 15-22 November.

His place alongside Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton and Daniil Medvedev makes it five qualifiers confirmed, with three spots still to be decided during the rest of the Paris week.

The Roland Garros final changed his year

Cobolli becomes the fourth active Italian ever to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, joining Sinner, Matteo Berrettini and Lorenzo Musetti on that list.

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The breakthrough came on clay. He pushed Zverev to five sets in the Roland Garros final in June, becoming, after Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner, only the third man born in the 2000s to play a major final. Earlier in the year he had claimed the ATP 500 title in Acapulco, beating Frances Tiafoe 7-6(4), 6-4 for a first hard-court trophy.

A Wimbledon quarter-final, a Cincinnati semi-final and a career-high world No. 6 ranking followed. Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, two of the men waiting for him in Turin, were among the names he beat along the way.

Turin without Sinner

The Italian storyline around this year’s Finals was meant to centre on Sinner, the two-time defending champion, playing in front of a home crowd. Instead, the world No. 1 announced on 6 October that his season was over, citing persistent knee inflammation.

“Me together with the doctors have decided that I need a course of treatment for my knee, which means that the 2026 season is officially over,” Sinner said in a video message.

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That leaves Cobolli as the only Italian in the eight-player draw at the Inalpi Arena.

A dream Cobolli did not see coming

Speaking in late October, before his qualification was mathematically sealed, Cobolli told The Tennis Gazette what a Turin debut would mean.

“It is a dream for me. It is like a Grand Slam, I didn’t think about Turin before.”

The chase for the three remaining places continues this week in Paris. Arthur Fils, Frances Tiafoe, Jodar, Alex de Minaur, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul are all still in contention, with ninth place in the Race To Turin also qualifying as a result of Sinner’s withdrawal. The Nitto ATP Finals begin at the Inalpi Arena on 15 November.

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