Flavio Cobolli

Flavio Cobolli came up the slow way. Born in Florence in May 2002 and raised in Subiaco outside Rome, he trained as a defender at the AS Roma football academy until 14 before committing to tennis under his father and still-coach Stefano. He reached his maiden Challenger final in Rome in 2021, won his first ATP match as a Parma wildcard over Marcos Giron that same year, and captured his first Challenger title at the 2022 Zadar Open. The grind through the Challenger ladder defined his early-20s before the breakout finally arrived.

He's a right-handed baseliner whose game is built on the clay he grew up on — 42-24 (63.6%) for his career on dirt against a level 42-42 on hard. The forehand is the weapon and the movement is tour-elite; the serve has improved into a real asset, up to 6.2 aces per match over the last 52 weeks from a 4.3 career average. What fans buy in for is the temperament — the open emotion, the willingness to grind five-setters, the Davis Cup nerve.

2025 was the leap. Before that year he had never won an ATP title, made a Slam second week, beaten a top-10 player, or cracked the top 30 — and he did all of it. After a brutal eight-match losing start he won Hamburg over Andrey Rublev, then reached his first major quarterfinal at Wimbledon, falling to Novak Djokovic in four. He closed the year clinching the Davis Cup for Italy, saving seven match points in a 17-15 semifinal tiebreak against Zizou Bergs.

The current beat is the biggest of his life. Cobolli built his clay season around a Munich final, a Madrid quarterfinal, and the Acapulco title as World No. 20. Then came Roland-Garros: a run to the final, where he lost to Alexander Zverev in five sets. The result pushed him to a career-high World No. 10 — the seventh Italian man to crack the top 10 since 1973.