Flavio Cobolli looked to get off the court in under three hours Monday at Roland Garros, when he went up 5-1 in the fourth set of his fourth-round match with Zachary Svajda.
Then the weight of the moment set in.
Svajda valiantly reeled off the next five games, as the No. 10 seed was broken twice when serving for the contest—missing a match point at 5-4 in the process. Cobolli then lost a mini break at 5-4 in the tiebreak, but held his nerve to avoid being pushed to a deciding set.
Speaking with Caroline Garcia on court following the victory, Cobolli was candid about how he was feeling when his lead slipped away.
“The only thing that I understood today is that the match is never done. I almost sh\\ my pants,” he told the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd.
“Now I’m happy but I’m still nervous. I have to recover a bit now.”
Expanding in press, Cobolli said, “I think when the match is almost done, you start to think of it, and that’s the problem with my character, because I don’t like to think a bit. I just want to play my best tennis possible. But if I think, especially if I’m nervous, I start to play a different tennis, and of course the Chatrier is not easy for everyone. So I think also the court was tough.”
The 24-year-old was the only man to reach the round of 16 without dropping a set in a drawn blown wide up with the seven Top 10 seeds failing to reach the second week—including world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time title holder Novak Djokovic. Cobolli has matched his best career major run, having advanced to the final eight at Wimbledon last summer.
“It’s for sure my favorite Grand Slam to play, because we (are) born on clay, and we have best feeling with the surface as Italians,” he shared.