Novak Djokovic and Flavio Cobolli have already been across from each other once during the Wimbledon Championships. That was for practice. Now it’s for real.
They will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers when they clash in the quarterfinals of the season’s third Grand Slam on Wednesday. It’s a showdown between a 24-time major champion and a player who had never previously reached a slam quarterfinal.
Earlier in the tournament, Cobolli also had a hit with Djokovic’s son as part of his sparring session with the 38-year-old.
“I’ll have a conversation with my son and see what he has noticed in the game of Cobolli the other day,” Djokovic joked.
Djokovic probably doesn’t need any help or advice from anyone to win this matchup. That’s no slight against Cobolli, of course, but the simple fact is that he has never played on this kind of stage. The 23-year-old has done well to advance in convincing fashion, but facing Djokovic is a lot different than going up against Beibit Zhukayev, Jack Pinnington Jones, Jakub Mensik, and Marin Cilic.
“He’s a very talented player–one of the youngsters coming up,” the Serb said of his upcoming opponent. “He’s one of those players [who is] young and new names coming up that we are probably going to see quite a bit in the future.
“I must say that pleasantly surprised with his result on grass because he doesn’t strike me as a grass-court specialist with his game, but he reached the quarterfinals. He’s beaten Cilic and some big servers and big players that are grass-court specialists, so huge credit to him.
“He’s a big fighter. We get along well. We practice whenever we can. We just had a hug; we embraced each other after the match (when) we saw each other on the terrace.”
Djokovic certainly won’t be as pleasant on the match court. The world No. 6 is simply ruthless at slams–and specifically at Wimbledon. He was won this tournament seven times and an eighth triumph is not out of the question based on how he looked in victories over Alexandre Muller, Dan Evans, Miomir Kecmanovic, and Alex de Minaur. It’s also worth noting that Djokovic trounced Cobolli 6-2, 6-1 in their only previous meeting at the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
Given that Djokovic is even better at majors than he is at other events at this point in his career, another straight-set success for him is likely in the cards.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.