“You lose the rhythm”: Flavio Cobolli weighs the cost of a walkover into the final

Flavio Cobolli will arrive at his first Grand Slam final having not hit a competitive ball since Wednesday, and he is honest about the double edge of it. Handed a place in the Roland-Garros final when Matteo Arnaldi withdrew ill before their semi-final, Cobolli faces almost four days without a match.

“Sometimes it helps, sometimes not,” he reflected. “I’ll have almost four days off – that’s a lot, so you lose the rhythm.” He intends to fight the rust manually, going straight back out to practise on the night of the walkover. “I need to keep my engine running,” Cobolli said. “I don’t feel satisfied.”

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“I’ll be ready for the final, for sure,” he said. “I also know I’ll be fresh, for sure. So maybe it helped, maybe not – I’ll tell you afterwards.”

His opponent sees no advantage in it. Asked whether Cobolli’s extra rest could matter on Sunday, Zverev was unconcerned. “Not really, because I feel fine,” the German said. “I didn’t have especially long matches – I feel like I could play again now. I don’t think it’ll make a big difference.”