Flavio Cobolli is through to the Wimbledon fourth round after comfortably dismissing 15th seed Jakub Mensik.
The Italian has looked imperious so far at Wimbledon, not dropping a set throughout the first three rounds. Although his third round opponent, Jakub Mensik, did recently admit that he had barely ever played on grass.
The 23-year-old spoke to the Tennis Channel following his victory over Mensik, where he explained how his ‘idol’ Novak Djokovic helped him win his third round encounter.
The Italian described the experience as ‘very emotional.’
Flavio Cobolli says practicing with Novak Djokovic helped him win his third round match at Wimbledon
Cobolli has been on fire this tournament, no less so against Jakub Mensik. The 19-year-old Czech star, who broke onto the tennis scene in March by winning the Miami Open, was no match for Cobolli on Saturday.
Despite rain delays hampering the momentum of Cobolli, he was able to maintain his composure to win 6-3 7-6 6-1.
Speaking to Jon Wertheim on the Tennis Channel, Cobolli was asked whether he knew Wimbledon was going to be a good tournament for him.
Cobolli replied: “No, but because the feeling before the tournament wasn’t really good.
“I played Eastbourne and I really played bad there. But I think I had a good set, like a practice here and it means a lot because I never win in a practice and here I did it so it seems like it’s changing something.
“And yesterday I practiced with Nole and I think this help a lot for the match of today. You can see what happened.”
The world number 24 was then asked to expand on his practice with Djokovic.
He said:“We had a chill practice but a very emotional and it means a lot because he’s my biggest idol and playing with him is always different and yesterday night when the manager call me and he told me that there possibility to play with him I immediately say yes and we played one hour and it was amazing.”
Flavio Cobolli says win ‘one of the best days of his life’
Cobolli posted a heartfelt message on Instagram after beating Mensik, saying: “One of the best days of my life, no joke.”
Cobolli, who won 100 points against Mensik, also won 71 per cent of his points on second serve while firing down nine aces and only serving one double fault.
The Italian faces a huge challenge next at Wimbledon in the form of US Open champion Marin Cilic. The Croatian player, who has already defeated British hope Jack Draper, has enjoyed a resurgent campaign in London, having previously made the final in 2017 before losing to Roger Federer in five sets.
Cobolli is due to play Cilic on Monday and could face his idol, Novak Djokovic, in the quarter-finals if he beats the Croat.
