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Cobolli stops thinking and quells Svajda fightback at French Open
Flavio Cobolli said he made the mistake of "thinking" before he steadied on Monday and clawed into the French Open quarter-finals, beating Zachary Svajda 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/5).
Cobolli raced through the first two sets in a total of one hour 25 minutes, breaking twice in each.
Then he wobbled once to surrender the third set and, leading 5-1 and with a match point, wobbled again in the fourth before surging through the tiebreak.
"The match is never done and today I almost shit in my pants," said Cobolli on court immediately after the match.
He offered a more analytical response at his later press conference.
"I think when the match is almost done, you start to think of it, and that's the problem with my character, because I don't like to think a bit," he said.
"I just want to play, play my best tennis possible. But if I think, especially if I'm nervous, I start to play a different tennis."
At No.10, the Italian goes into the last eight as the third-highest remaining men's seed. It will be the 24-year-old's second Grand Slam quarter-final. He reached the last eight at Wimbledon last season.
Cobolli will face either fourth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime or unseeded Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.
Twice in the third set Svajda, a 23-year-old American, held serve to save the match. He then took the tiebreak as Cobolli's accuracy deserted him.
In the fourth, Cobolli galloped to a 4-0 lead. From 5-1 up he could not finish Zvajda off, wasting a match point at 5-4.
The Italian found just enough composure to take the tiebreak and win in three hours, 21 minutes.
Cobolli is a former Roma youth footballer.
Shortly after his press conference he was back on Chatrier to help four French Paris Saint-Germain players -- Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue and Warren Zaire-Emery -- parade the Champions League trophy they won in Budapest on Saturday.
Cobolli grabbed a selfie with the trophy.
He said he that while he was at Roma he played with Riccardo Calafiori, who missed Arsenal's Budapest defeat with injury, as well Edoardo Bove, now of Watford and Matteo Cancellieri of Lazio.
"At the end, I don't like to play with a team; only in Davis Cup," said Cobolli. "So I decide to quit with football. When I play tennis, I feel different emotion, and I feel better with myself."
W.Sim--SG
