Flavio Cobolli on learning from Carlos Alcaraz & leaving McDonald’s behind | ATP Tour
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Cobolli in learning from Alcaraz and leaving McDonald’s behind
Surging Italian was the other Team Europe in the Laver Cup
September 23, 2024
Gerald Matzka/Getty Images for the Laver Cup
Flavio Cobolli of the European team and Carlos Alcaraz share a joke with Ben Shelton of the World Team at the Laver Cup.
Written by Andy West
Good things come to those who wait.
Flavio Cobolli has reaped the rewards of that philosophy this year on the ATP Tour. The 22-year-old Italian enjoyed a breakout 2024, making it a career-high 31 of 37 wins and climbing to the brink of the Top 30 in the PIF ATP Rankings. For someone who won six tour-level games entering the season, that’s some progress.
“Ever since I was little, I told myself, ‘You’re a tennis player.’ You can do well in this game. Stay calm, take your time and be patient, because the results will come’,” Cobolli told ATPTour.com. “This year, the results are in, so I’m happy.”
Cobolli received further reward for his off-season on the ATP Tour last week, when he joined Team Europe as part of its successful Laver Cup campaign in Berlin. Just eight months after breaking into the Top 100 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time, Cobolli spent a week in Berlin rubbing shoulders and training with the likes of Bjorn Borg, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev.
“I learned a lot from the boys. They are amazing,” said Cobolli in Berlin. “I didn’t know anyone here [except Alcaraz]but from the first day I came here they treated me well. They helped me a lot. They gave me tips for the future, throughout the season. They are really good and I enjoyed this week.
“I knew Carlos well. We are the same age, and we know each other very well. We have a good relationship. I’d rather talk about other things than tennis with him, but I asked [Grigor] Dimitrov many things, and Zverev. Guys with more experience. Yes, Carlos is still a legend of our sport, but we prefer to talk about football or other things right now!”
After impressing but falling short in the semifinals at the 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by the PIF last November, Cobolli spent time training with Alcaraz at the start of the season. He credits that training as the key to his impressive rise this year.
“I did a lot of work before the season,” he said. “We worked hard to improve my game and mine [mentality]. We went to the Ferrero Academy in Villena with Carlos. We did a lot of work, we have fun together, and I think starting the season like this helped me a lot with the results. I learned a lot from his team, and I had good results after that preseason.”
Thomas Enqvist, Grigor Dimitrov, Carlos Alcaraz and Flavio Cobolli of Team Europe at the Laver Cup.” style=”width:100%;” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/images/news/ 2024/ 09/23/20/51/cobolli-alcaraz-dimitrov-laver-cup-2024.jpg”>
Photo Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images.
Cobolli’s first event of the year was the Australian Open, where he needed to qualify for the majors. He did so successfully and progressed to the third round in Melbourne, which proved valuable and an important boost of confidence.
“I was going out with one [of the main draw] before the tournament, so I really was [disappointed],” he recalled. “But I succeeded and I won [Nicolas] Jarry in five sets, so that match means a lot to me. I beat Felix too [Auger-Aliassime] in February in Acapulco. It was the best time in my career.”
Aside from Alcaraz, Cobolli’s full-time presence on the ATP Tour has resulted in him dethroning another former world No. 1 and Grand Slam champion. In April in Barcelona, he was drawn to face Rafael Nadal in the Spaniard’s first competitive match in more than three months.
Facing Nadal in front of the home crowd was going to be a tough task, and the 22-time major champion prevailed 6-2, 6-3. Yet Cobolli remained true to his philosophy of staying patient in the face of adversity, and believes he took away a lot from his experience.
“Playing with Rafa is on another level,” said Cobolli. “I watched him since I was young on TV and when the draw came out, I said I don’t know if I want to play with him because I don’t know if I deserve it. I don’t know if I’m ready’. Of course I was a little nervous at first, in every game even.
“It was a great experience. I enjoyed all the points I made with him, and of course I learned from that game as well. Things that helped me in the following weeks.”
Cobolli, who reached his first major final in Washington last month, will next compete in another ATP 500 event on a hard court, the China Open in Beijing. As he nears the end of his first full season on Tour, is there one important lesson he’s learned from spending more time with the world’s best players?
“I don’t just think that the top five players in the world, but the top 50, are really professional, and they don’t miss anything,” he said. “They spend a lot of time recovering their bodies and they are recovering well. Every training session they do is 100 percent. At the beginning of the year, that was not the case for me. I did 70 or 80 percent, I ate McDonald’s. Now it has changed and I am looking at them. I changed it.”
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