Lorenzo Musetti paid a touching tribute to his rival and "best friend" Flavio Cobolli, who was forced to retire in the middle of their all-Italian clash at the US Open. No. 24 seed Cobolli struggled with a wrist issue and saw the physio multiple times during the second set but decided to play on.

After going down a break in set three, he threw in the towel with Musetti leading 6-3 6-2 2-0. They shared a warm hug at the net, and the 10th seed addressed the crowd after advancing to the second week via retirement, discussing his friendship with Cobolli.

Although Musetti is a two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, he had never made it into the second week of the US Open until now. But he wanted to focus on Cobolli after watching his friend battle a wrist injury, and asked the fans to applaud his opponent.

"Yeah, honestly, I didn't want to finish like that, especially against Flavio," Musetti told the crowd on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.

"He's probably my best friend on tour. We've known each other since nine years old. We know pretty well the families, we've spent really, many, many hours together on the court and off the court throughout our career. First of all, a big round of applause to Flavio, please."

Musetti was still delighted to advance to the round of 16 in Flushing Meadows for the first time in his career. He added: "Of course, it's a bittersweet match and bittersweet end.

"But of course, I'm happy to be in the fourth round for the first time. I think I played a really great match until the last point.

"Of course, Flavio, I could see that from the second set he was struggling a bit. But it was still tough to play against him and I wish him the best of luck to recover soon and to be healthy again."

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