Flavio Cobolli has been given some advice ahead of his match against Alexander Zverev in the Roland Garros final.
Cobolli has reached his first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros after his compatriot Matteo Arnaldi withdrew from their semi-final due to a viral illness.
The 24-year-old is now just one win away from his first Grand Slam title, as Cobolli plays Zverev in the Roland Garros final, with a new major champion confirmed to be crowned.
Following Arnaldi’s withdrawal, Cobolli has extra days to prepare for Zverev and Coco Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, has told him what he should do ahead of the Roland Garros final.
Brad Gilbert advises Flavio Cobolli to ‘go a little bit harder in practice’
While Cobolli will now have extra time to recover physically ahead of the Roland Garros final, it could also take him out of the rhythm of playing a Grand Slam tournament, having not played a match for three days before the championship match.
With this in mind, Gilbert has advised Cobolli to have a more intense practice the day before the Roland Garros final.
Gilbert also suggested that Cobolli should practice against someone with a big serve to prepare for Zverev, who he believes he should be focussing on, rather than the occasion of playing in his first Grand Slam final.
Who will win the 2026 French Open final – Alexander Zverev or Flavio Cobolli?
Vote now!
“Well first of all, you go through your normal routine tonight,” Gilbert said on The Big T Podcast. “Obviously you won’t go through your cooldown and all the things that you’ve done. Maybe you have a little bit of a light workout tonight and then get to your normal dinner routine.
“But I might go a little bit harder in practice tomorrow, because he probably only had a little bit of a warm-up today to get ready and do all the things. So, you know it’ll be three full days that he doesn’t play.
“So, I would gauge that tomorrow instead of maybe the day before, you might only go 45-minute hit, but he might feel like, you know what, I might bring in somebody that has a big serve, work on returning a big serve.
“But I might go a little bit harder and I would only focus honestly as the coach on tactics, what you just did and beating him in Germany, what happened in the other match, not the gravitas that if you win this one match that you’re going to win your first Grand Slam or if you lose, you lose in the Grand Slam.
“Think about what you’re doing to be successful against him, and you probably want to be able to get in as many forehand to forehand exchanges as you can.”
How many major titles will Alexander Zverev retire with if he wins the 2026 French Open?
He’s the favourite to win in Paris…
What is Flavio Cobolli’s record in finals?
Cobolli is in by far the biggest final of his career at Roland Garros, but his record in finals on the ATP Tour should be encouraging to him.
From the five previous finals he has played, Cobolli has won three of those, including two of those being on clay.
| Tournaments where Cobolli has reached the final | Final Result |
| Washington Open 2024 | Sebastian Korda beat Cobolli, 4-6 6-2 6-0 |
| Romanian Open 2025 | Cobolli beat Sebastian Baez, 6-4 6-4 |
| Hamburg Open 2025 | Cobolli beat Andrey Rublev, 6-2 6-4 |
| Mexican Open 2026 | Cobolli beat Frances Tiafoe, 7-6(4) 6-4 |
| Bavarian Open 2026 | Ben Shelton beat Cobolli, 6-2 7-5 |
Cobolli lost his most recent final against Ben Shelton at the ATP 500 tournament in Munich, but he will be encouraged by what happened in the semi-final of that tournament.
In his match prior to the Munich final, Cobolli beat Zverev in his first ever win over the German, who got revenge at the Madrid Open just over a week later.
Cobolli will be hoping to repeat his performance from Munich against Zverev, as he takes on the second seed in the Roland Garros final on Sunday, June 7.
