Wimbledon star Flavio Cobolli bizarrely threatened to ‘hit’ his own dad immediately after beating Mariano Navone over two days to reach the second round. The pair had to resume their SW19 opener after being stopped for a lack of light on Tuesday evening, as the Italian won 1-6 7-5 6-3 7-6(8)
However, heads turned when Cobolli was asked to speak on court immediately after the victory. It was noticed that the 24-year-old could not keep still during the conversation and even admitted that he “hates” his life after saving six set points to secure a place in the next round.
“Wow,” he said, before being asked about the six saved set points. “Now I completely hate my life. It’s always like this. Always run. Always fight.”
Cobolli then admitted to wanting to “break something” and bizarrely said that his father, who acts as his coach, could be on the receiving end of his rage.
“I just wanna break something now,” he joked. “I cannot stop [moving his feet]. You see? I need to hit something! I think I will hit my dad now.”
When probed further on the comment, Cobolli explained: “For sure. The first person that I will hit. I still don’t know with what. You’ll see tomorrow if he has a black thing on the face.”
Cobolli’s father, Stefano, is a former professional player who has transitioned into a coach following his retirement. They have worked together since Flavio was 17.
“My dad was a good player but he stopped when he was young, so he had a slightly lower ranking than me,” Cobolli told the ATP Tour last year. “He is an incredible coach now and we have a great relationship.
“When I was young, we wanted to keep tennis and our relationship separate. I used to play a lot of football and we would talk about that, but we didn’t talk about tennis. He wanted me to improve alone and then he said when I was ready he would help. We started a few years ago and we have put in a lot of work together since we started and last year was really good. We want to do more now.
“It is tough when your dad is your coach. As I said, when I was young we would just discuss football. As I have grown up and we have worked together, we have developed a really good relationship and I listen to him more now than ever before. I think we can do great things together.
“It is important that when we are home, we don’t talk about tennis. If we fight on court, we keep it on court. It can be tough on court at times because we both want to be right, but he is a great person and I love working with him.”