Flavio Cobolli told the French Open crowd that he ‘almost s*** on his pants’ (Image: Flavio Cobolli told the French Open crowd that he ‘almost s*** on his pants’)
Flavio Cobolli got a little too honest after reaching his first Grand Slam quarter-finals. The No. 10 seed had not dropped a set on his way to the fourth round and handily took the first two over Zachary Svajda before the American started fighting back. Svajda won the third in a tiebreak, though Cobolli recovered and raced onto a 5-1 lead in the fourth.
But the Italian suddenly lost all his momentum and was broken twice while serving for the match, as Svajda won six games in a row. Cobolli recovered to claim a 6-2 6-3 6-7(3) 7-6(5) victory in a tiebreak, and then told the 15,000-strong Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd that he “almost s*** on [his] pants”.
Retired French ace Carolina Garcia came out to interview Cobolli after he reached the last eight. Garcia had been waiting a while, in case the 10th seed won in the third-set tiebreak, or capitalised on his 5-1 lead in the fourth set. But he finally got the job done after three hours and 19 minutes on court and addressed the crowd.
“That was a great battle out there. You won the first two sets a bit easier, and then the match got a bit more complicated. How happy are you with your performance and how you stayed positive and confident?” Garcia asked him.
“Merci a tous again,” Cobolli first told the crowd, before getting very candid about his fourth-set scare. “The only thing that I understood today is, the match is never done and I almost s*** on my pants. Now I’m happy, but still nervous. And yeah, I have to recover a bit now.
“I always say that this is my favourite Grand Slam and I love to play on clay in France, the crowd is unbelievable and you guys helped me a lot today to finish the match that was really important for the next round.
“I also want to say thanks to my team, I think also for them, someone s*** on the pants but we are really happy to have the chance and honour to play another match here, so I am looking forward to the next one.”
Flavio Cobolli celebrating reaching the quarter-finals. (Image: Getty)
The 24-year-old now has a couple of days to recover before he faces either No. 4 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime or Chilean star Alejandro Tabilo in the quarter-finals. The top half of the draw has opened up following Jannik Sinner’s shock second-round defeat.
But there are still three Italians left in that side of the draw – Cobolli, who is into the last eight, and Matteo Berrettini and Matteo Arnaldi, who have yet to play their fourth-round matches. And he wished them luck after getting to a second Major quarter-final.
Cobolli also turned his attention to the football, as the Champions League trophy is set to make an appearance at Stade Roland Garros after PSG retained their title on Saturday. The No. 10 seed congratulated PSG on court, though he joked that Roma could give them a run for their money next year.
The Italian added: “I think the biggest fan here on the tour of football. I asked you guys to make me sleep, but you didn’t, last week! So I want to say congrats to Paris Saint-Germain for the Champions League. But I want to say also, the next year it will also AS Roma in the Champions League.”
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