Flavio Cipolla

Cipolla began 2008 with a bang the first week in January, winning the singles and doubles titles of the Challenger in New Caledonia, to get his singles ranking to a career high of #116. He won 2 more Challenger doubles titles in February in Belgrade and in March in Italy to establish himself as a top-100 doubles player.

Cipolla got a chance to compete in a grand-slam tournament at the 2008 U.S. Open in the men's singles competition at Flushing Meadows. Despite losing in qualifying he, along with Rui Machado, were reinstated following the withdrawals of Mikhail Youzhny. Cipolla made the most of his opportunity and reached the third round. In the first round he beat Jan Hernych before defeating Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei in the second round. In the third round he came up against world number 10 and tenth seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. Cipolla took the match to 5 sets by taking a shock two set lead, however his Swiss opponent still had enough to come from behind and take the match, emerging victorious 5–7, 6–7, 6–4, 6–0, 6–4.

Flavio Cipolla (born 20 October 1983) is a professional tennis player on the ATP Tour from Italy. He reached the second round at the French Open of 2007, where he lost to Rafael Nadal. He reached the 3rd round of the 2008 US Open. His career high rank is No. 70, achieved on 23 April 2012.