Wimbledon participant threatens to hit his personal dad as he vows to ‘flip his face black’
The tennis star raised eyebrows with an outrageous outburst
Flavio Cobolli’s interview took a very strange turn.(Image: BBC)
Wimbledon ace Flavio Cobolli made a bizarre threat to ‘hit’ his own dad moments after beating Mariano Navone over two days to progress to the second round.
The pair had to resume their SW19 opener on Wednesday after play was halted due to poor light on Tuesday evening, with the Italian prevailing 1-6 7-5 6-3 7-6(8).
But eyebrows were raised when Cobolli was invited to speak on court straight after his triumph. Viewers noted that the 24-year-old couldn’t remain still during the interview and even confessed that he “hates” his life after saving six set points to book his spot in the next round.
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“Wow,” he said, before being asked about the six saved set points. “Now I completely hate my life. It’s always like this. Always run. Always fight.”
Cobolli then confessed to wanting to “break something” and strangely suggested that his father, who serves as his coach, might bear the brunt of his fury.
“I just wanna break something now,” he joked. “I cannot stop [moving his feet]. You see? I need to hit something! I think I will hit my dad now.”
When pressed further on the remark, Cobolli added: “For sure. The first person that I will hit. I still don’t know with what. You’ll see tomorrow if he has a black thing on the face.”
Cobolli’s father, Stefano, is a former professional player who has moved into coaching since hanging up his racket. The pair have worked together since Flavio was 17.
“My dad was a good player but he stopped when he was young, so he had a slightly lower ranking than me,” Cobolli told the ATP Tour last year. “He is an incredible coach now and we have a great relationship.
“When I was young, we wanted to keep tennis and our relationship separate. I used to play a lot of football and we would talk about that, but we didn’t talk about tennis. He wanted me to improve alone and then he said when I was ready he would help. We started a few years ago and we have put in a lot of work together since we started and last year was really good. We want to do more now.
“It is tough when your dad is your coach. As I said, when I was young we would just discuss football. As I have grown up and we have worked together, we have developed a really good relationship and I listen to him more now than ever before. I think we can do great things together.
“It is important that when we are home, we don’t talk about tennis. If we fight on court, we keep it on court. It can be tough on court at times because we both want to be right, but he is a great person and I love working with him.”
