What Novak Djokovic said to Flavio Cobolli at the net after their Wimbledon quarter-final last year was brief, but it may have stayed with the Italian long after Centre Court had emptied.
After defeating Cobolli in four sets, Djokovic told him he would soon become a Top 10 player and that he would stay there for a long time. Less than a year later, those words had become reality. Cobolli fulfilled the prediction with a breakthrough run to his first major final at Roland Garros, and returns to Wimbledon in 2026 as the World No. 10.
Djokovic, who has spent a record 428 weeks at No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, has long set the standard at the top of the sport. For Cobolli, hearing that belief from one of the greatest players in history — and the man he had admired since childhood — gave the moment an even deeper significance.
“Novak Djokovic, he has been my idol since I was young,” Cobolli told ATPTour.com earlier this year. “I started playing tennis because of him and I grew up watching him on TV. When I watch him, I want to imitate what he does on the court. He is a really good person. I love him on and off the court. He is my favourite player of all time.”
To hear such praise from the player he grew up idolising and trying to emulate was a special moment for Cobolli, but it was also the latest chapter in a relationship that stretches back years. Long before they met on one of tennis’ biggest stages, Cobolli had already crossed paths with Djokovic as a teenager.
Before last year's quarter-final and Djokovic's memorable prediction, the pair had first met in Wimbledon in 2018, when Cobolli was still finding his feet on the junior circuit.
“I played with him at Wimbledon last year, and the first time I met him was in 2018 at Wimbledon, many years ago, when I was a junior,” Cobolli recalled. “He has always been nice with me and to the team. He also speaks Italian, so we have a good relationship.”
Their relationship has developed alongside Cobolli’s rise from juniors to the ATP Tour. The contrast between his two Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings with Djokovic highlights that progression. In Shanghai in 2024, Djokovic allowed the Italian just three games in a straight-sets win.
Seven months later at Wimbledon, Cobolli pushed the Serbian much harder, taking the opening set in a tense tie-break before Djokovic eventually closed out a four-set victory. Since then, Cobolli has continued his climb, rising to a career-high World No. 10 after winning three ATP Tour titles and reaching the Roland Garros final.
Perhaps that is why Djokovic’s words resonated so strongly. They were not simply encouragement offered in passing, but the assessment of a champion who had watched Cobolli's progress over several years and recognised where it was leading. By the time the Italian returned to Wimbledon this year, Djokovic’s prediction had already come true.
With Cobolli and Djokovic placed in opposite halves of the Wimbledon draw, another meeting can only come in the final. If it happens, it would be a fitting continuation of a story that began years ago as a junior, gathered momentum on Centre Court last summer and has since seen one of the sport’s greatest champions proven right.
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