By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - Flavio Cobolli continued the best Grand Slam run of his career on Monday by defeating Australian fifth seed Alex de Minaur 7-5 7-6(4) 6-3 and returning to the Wimbledon quarter-finals just weeks after his French Open runner-up finish.
The ninth seed's battling display on Court One put him in the Wimbledon quarter-finals for a second straight year, and he will have a good chance to continue his surge with a wildcard looming in the next round.
Cobolli will
play the winner of the fourth-round encounter between British hopeful Arthur Fery and Bulgarian veteran Grigor Dimitrov, both of whom have made hay in the sunshine at the All England Club in the last week.
The 24-year-old Italian took charge of the first meeting between top-10 players in the men's draw this year by forcing a backhand error to break in the 11th game of the opening set, which he pocketed in 50 minutes.
A relaxed Cobolli chatted with fans on the sidelines during a break in play when a spectator fell ill in the second set, and then reeled off three games in a row from 2-5 down, before going on to double his advantage via a tiebreak.
The big hitting that helped Cobolli navigate tense moments at the end of the second set helped him claw back from 0-2 in the next set and recover another break in the sixth game to finally see off his determined opponent.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in London; Editing by Alison Williams)
