The opportunity of a lifetime!

Playing against Svajda in the round of 16 at Roland-Garros is surely the first and last time Cobolli will face such a chance.

I don’t want to disrespect Svajda, because the American absolutely deserves to be here, but it’s true that this is the second big surprise in this draw, and there have already been many. Obviously, Sinner’s defeat remains the main one, but seeing the American at this stage of the competition on clay, when he has very little experience on this surface and doesn’t particularly like it, is still quite surprising.

You have to acknowledge that he has real shot quality; what he does is not typical of a clay-court game, far from it, but he’s excellent in his playing style. Whether it’s on the forehand or the backhand side, he’s able to hit a lot of different spots, he can serve well and he’s got good hands. He’s a player who knows perfectly well how to play tennis and, whatever the surface, he adapts; he has the level to be here. His win over Cerundolo was once again very impressive, but you also have to mention the Argentine’s complete underperformance on the other side of the net, as he completely crumbled under the pressure and the opportunity to go further this week. I don’t think Svajda imagines himself going further each time; he therefore plays without pressure and isn’t affected at all compared with other players.

On Cobolli’s side, you can say that he’s continuing his perfect run for now. He still hasn’t lost a set and is showing strong motivation on top of having a very convincing level of play. I see a bunch of other favorites this week who are much more labored, both in their tennis and in their attitude. To me, Cobolli is really very strong and I even think he’s the favorite in this top half of the draw, ahead of FAA. I’m not going to talk much about his match against Tien today, because the American on the other side was completely spent and did what he could. But once again, Cobolli played a very serious match, full of focus and discipline. I really like him when he’s in this state, and I get the feeling that this open draw is firing him up rather than anything else.

This will be their second meeting after a three-set match played in 2024. Obviously, on clay, Cobolli starts with a fairly big advantage. But for me, it’s also the average level that’s going to matter in this matchup. Svajda is having a great tournament and playing beautiful tennis. But he’s already showing a lot of inconsistency within sets and especially from match to match, whereas Cobolli normally inspires a lot of confidence when you see him in this kind of form during a tournament.