It’s been a week of firsts for Flavio Cobolli.
After Matteo Arnaldi withdrew from the French Open semifinals due to illness, Cobolli made his first-ever Grand Slam final. It was with little fanfare, considering the circumstances, and it wasn’t even his first milestone of the day. An hour before, Jakub Mensik’s loss in the first semifinal ensured that Cobolli will make his top 10 debut on Monday.
Cobolli Secures Top 10 Debut
Cobolli’s best tennis has never been a source of doubt. He’s shown flashes of a remarkable level as his career progressed, but his issue was always consistency. He would go on great runs, then follow that up with stretches of early losses, with the cycle continuing on and on. In the last 52 weeks Cobolli’s level has improved, but it is his growth in consistency that has propelled him to become one of the world’s best.
The biggest boosts to his ranking haven’t just been recent. Nearly a year ago, the Italian broke new ground with a first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon, where he took a set against Novak Djokovic. And though this wasn’t worth any points, Cobolli’s heroics in the Davis Cup won Italy the title, showcasing a well-developed ability to maintain his best level under immense pressure.
A title in Acapulco showed Cobolli’s surface versatility, as he had only won titles on clay before then. He was dominant in Mexico, dropping only one set and moving into the top 15 for the first time. A run to the final in Munich pushed him up to No. 13, and with a quarterfinal run in Madrid he was up to a career high of No. 12, within grasping distance of the top 10.
The French Open was a perfect opportunity, and things only got more favorable for Cobolli as the tournament went along.
Cobolli was seeded tenth due to withdrawals, and it was a sign of things to come. His consistency throughout the year gave way to consistency at one of the most tumultuous and chaotic Grand Slams in recent memory. Where other top seeds struggled to win matches, Cobolli didn’t drop a set until the fourth round and wasn’t trapped in any of the long five-setters that defined the tournament. In a year, Cobolli had gone from one of the most up-and-down, unpredictable players on the ATP Tour to one that played to his high seed and then some.
He matched his best Grand Slam result with a quarterfinal run, where he faced fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime. The underdog for the first time at this tournament, Cobolli just kept playing the tennis that got him there. After dropping the first set, Cobolli came back with force, taking control of the match. He advanced to his first Grand Slam semifinal and, once Mensik was out of the tournament, guaranteed a top 10 debut.
Cobolli is unique in that there is no one obvious strength in his game that he can rely on. What sets him apart is that he is adaptable. He has incredible movement and can get to just about any shot, he can find power and angles off both of his groundstrokes, and when the moment calls for it his serve can deliver. Oftentimes, Cobolli’s matches come down to finding the right gear at the right time, and more and more often, he’s finding it.
Although Cobolli received a walkover into the final, it doesn’t diminish his achievements not just at this tournament, but in the entire year’s worth of points on his ranking. Cobolli’s level and newfound ability to sustain it has made him one of the best players in the world, and now he has the ranking to reflect that.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane – USA TODAY Sports
