Cobolli brings flair to Wimbledon as Italian surge gathers steam

Flavio Cobolli marched into the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Monday, leading a dashing Italian advance by snuffing out the once-lethal Marin Cilic in a statement win that lit up a sunny but breezy Court Two.

Wielding his bright orange racket like a fluorescent sabre, the 23-year-old carved through the Croatian’s defences to win 6-4 6-4 6-7(4) 7-6(3), lighting the way for compatriots Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Sonego.

Both hope to follow him through later in the day and set a Wimbledon record of three Italian men into the last eight.

For Cilic, now 36 and a finalist here in 2017, it was a flat, sobering exit — a campaign that had briefly stirred echoes of past glories ending with a performance that just did not show verve or resolve.

Cobolli next will face either Australian Alex de Minaur or tennis titan Novak Djokovic but either way will surely fear nobody after such a confidence-boosting performance.

Compact and bristling with youthful energy, he owned the court during the first two sets, firing groundstrokes fizzing into Cilic’s side throughout, while the big man — a former U.S. Open champion — took bigger strides, made bigger cuts at the ball and was repeatedly forced into bigger errors.

There was less fanfare out on Court Two than on the raucous night Cilic had turned back time to topple fourth seed Jack Draper. And this time the Croatian just failed to spark.

Not so Cobolli.

Buoyed by pockets of vocal Italian support, he quickly got into his groove before showing there is far more to his arsenal than rock-solid groundstrokes — unfurling a series of beautifully deft volleys and feathered drop shots that delighted an increasingly appreciative crowd.

A single break of serve in each of the first two sets put him firmly in the driving seat before Cilic delved deep into his well of wiles and somehow managed to steal the third set on a tiebreak.

Cilic broke again for 4-3 in the fourth set as Cobolli’s frustration started to show and the Croat’s shadow loomed ever larger, but 22nd seed Cobolli kept hammering away and broke back immediately thanks to a backhand winner.

Reprieved, he went on to force a second tiebreak and this time made no mistake, clinching victory when Cilic fired an unforced error — his 64th of the match.