Sebastian Korda had a message for the Italian crowd that jeered him after his second-round win over Flavio Cobolli.
Korda, fresh from lifting his biggest career title this past week, was playing a home crowd favorite, Cobolli, ranked a career-high World No. 57 and one of the newest crops of Italian talent rising to the top. The lanky American won a tight opening set in a tie-break after one hour of play.
But Cobolli, being cheered on by fervent supporters, secured the first break of the contest in the ninth game of the second set to lead 5-4. He coolly held to 15 to force a decider.
It was the 22-year-old Italian who got his nose in front at the start of the third set when he broke Korda for a second time in the match. But Cobolli's lead was shot-lived because the 24th seed broke back for 3-all and, right at the end, hit the knockout punch to break again.
Korda's stunning cross-court passing shot brought the match to a fitting conclusion, and judging by his immediate reaction, it was a sweet victory for him. He sarcastically blew kisses to the crowd in front of the stands before shaking hands with his vanquished opponent.
The World No. 27 completed a set of match wins at all nine Masters tournaments. Rome was the one ATP 1000 where he had not hit the ground running, losing in each of his previous two trips at the first hurdle.
Korda has since clarified his emotions and celebration after the match when he took to X (formerly Twitter) to call out the fans stationed behind him on the court who taunted his coaching team and family.
"Shoutout to the fans behind me for talking inappropriately about my girlfriend, family and team for 2.5hrs. Thank you for the extra motivation."
However, Korda appears to have forgiven them, adding in the tweet, "Still love yall" with a love emoji and the Italian flag. He will play fellow American Taylor Fritz in an intriguing third-round match on Sunday.
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