Cobolli reaches his first Roland-Garros quarter-final, dropping his first set of the tournament but closing out Svajda in four

Flavio Cobolli, the 10th seed, beat American world No. 85 Zachary Svajda 6-2, 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(5) on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Monday morning to reach the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros for the first time in his career – his second Grand Slam quarter-final after Wimbledon 2025, and a match in which he dropped the first set of his fortnight in Paris but found a way through a contest that drifted away from him in the third before he closed it out in a tighter-than-expected four.

“I almost shit my pants,” he told Court Philippe-Chatrier through the interpreter’s microphone. The crowd, after three hours and 19 minutes on the same court, laughed.

The first two sets had run his way without alarm. Cobolli broke twice in each to take the opening pair 6-2 and 6-3, and against an opponent who had spent 12 hours and 24 minutes on court to reach the round of 16 – through Adam Walton, Alexei Popyrin and Francisco Cerúndolo in five-set scrapes across the opening rounds – the Italian was, by every measure that mattered, the fresher player and the better one.

The third set was the moment Svajda found a way back into it. The American held when he had to, dragged Cobolli into longer rallies than the Italian wanted to play, and ran the third-set tie-break 7-3.

Cobolli: 3rd highest ranked player in the draw

The fourth opened with Cobolli looking like a player aware of how close the contest had become. He held to 1-0, broke for 2-0, was broken back at 4-2, and held to 5-3 before being broken to 5-4. The set ran to a tie-break the Italian eventually closed out 7-5 to win the match, after closing his evening with the on-court frankness the broadcast had been waiting for.

The win takes Cobolli to 13 sets played, one dropped, across four matches in Paris – the most efficient run of any of the remaining men. He is now the third-highest ranked player still in the men’s draw, behind Alexander Zverev and Félix Auger-Aliassime, and the favourite to come through the quarter of a section that has lost Daniil Medvedev, Valentin Vacherot, Cameron Norrie and Francisco Cerúndolo in the opening week.

The 24-year-old from Rome’s quarter-final opponent will be the winner of fourth seed Auger-Aliassime against Chilean world No. 36 Alejandro Tabilo, playing later on Monday afternoon.

Svajda’s tournament ends on the deepest run of his career and the most consequential week of his young adult life. The American is now world No. 59 in the live rankings, 26 places higher than his entry point.