Flavio Cobolli admits to using the ‘Novak Djokovic method’ to beat home favorite Felix Auger-Aliassime at Canadian Open

Italy's Flavio Cobolli admitted that he likes to imitate Novak Djokovic's way of dealing with the crowd to win matches.

Flavio Cobolli admits to using the ‘Novak Djokovic method’ to beat home favorite Felix Auger-Aliassime at Canadian Open

Flavio Cobolli, Novak Djokovic (Images via Wikipedia, Imago)

Flavio Cobolli applied the Novak Djokovic method to beat home favorite Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Canadian Open. It wasn’t the first time the Italian imitated Djokovic. 

Djokovic, as it’s known already, doesn’t enjoy the crowd’s support in many tournaments even though he is the legend of the game. He thinks most of the fans dislike him and so, instead of letting himself down, he uses their boos to strengthen himself mentally, and that has worked for him. At least that’s what the fans, tennis pundits, and his rivals say. 

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Cobolli likes to copy Djokovic’s mentality to win matches. Auger-Aliassime, who is from Canada, meant that he had the crowd’s support when he played against Cobolli. But as the 22-year-old emerged victorious, he later revealed that he has been learning from Djokovic how not to let the crowd affect him and admitted that so far it worked for him. 

FS Video
I've always had Nole as a reference player. I try to imitate him there too. It's not just his technique that I like, I like his mentality. I also try to take these little things as examples of what he says during the conference. Since he explained how he transformed the support of a crowd for his opponent positively, I have applied this method. I have repeated it several times and I must say that it works. 
Flavio Cobolli said after the match 

Cobolli will next face Arthur Rinderknech. The Frenchman played in the tournament as a qualifier and went past his compatriot Adrian Mannarino to set up the clash with Cobolli.

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Novak Djokovic won’t let a disrespectful crowd touch him

Although Novak Djokovic has mastered the art of not letting the crowd’s insults affect him, he gave it back to them when he thought the Centre Court crowd at the 2024 Wimbledon, where he was playing against Denmark’s Holger Rune, was disrespecting him. The crowd’s elongated chants of Rune’s name tricked Djokovic into thinking that they were actually the boos. 

Novak Djokovic (5)
Novak Djokovic (Image via Imago)
I don’t accept it. No. I know they were cheering for Rune, but that’s an excuse to also boo.
Novak Djokovic said after the match 

Djokovic later reached the final and lost to Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets. He later took his revenge by beating the Spaniard in the Olympic final in Paris to win his first gold medal.

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