Zachary Svajda Collides with Umpire’s Chair During Tense Roland Garros Match Versus Flavio Cobolli

This year’s Roland Garros is seeing a lot of surprises. It’s just the start of the second week, and already several top players, including Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner, have crashed out. And this has made Alexander Zverev the top seed and the heavy favorite, and he will be hoping to finally end his Grand Slam title drought.

But there are other guys, equally capable of winning their first Major title. And one of these players is Flavio Cobolli, who, on Monday (June 1), clinched a 6-2, 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(5) win over Zachary Svajda to reach the last eight of the French Open for the first time.

At one point during the match, the American ace collided with the umpire’s chair while chasing a ball and appeared to have gotten a cut on his left elbow. Cobolli showed great sportsmanship here because when Svajda got up, he was handed the towel by the 24-year-old.

Zachary Svajda collides with the umpire chair during his match against Flavio Cobolli at Roland Garros pic.twitter.com/UeI7kDxdKu

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) June 1, 2026

While Svajda was cleaning the clay off his arms, Cobolli picked up the bottle and poured the water on Svajda’s elbow as Philippe-Chatrier started clapping for his sportsmanship. This is the second time the two clashed on the tour. Their previous meeting, in the fourth round of the 2024 Delray Beach Open, was also won by Cobolli.

Great sportsmanship shown by Flavio Cobolli after his opponent Zachary Svajda fell 👏 pic.twitter.com/Ai26gRzktG

— TNT Sports (@tntsports) June 1, 2026

Svajda, who made his career’s first Grand Slam fourth round by overcoming Francisco Cerundolo in five sets, also played in the French Open main draw for the first time in his career. But Cobolli has already played one Major quarterfinal in his career (in last year’s Wimbledon, losing to Djokovic).

Flavio Cobolli on his win over Zachary Svajda

Prior to his fourth-round clash, Flavio Cobolli had not dropped a set. He went past compatriot Andrea Pellegrino, Wu Yibing, and Learner Tien in his previous round.

Against Zachary Svajda, although Cobolli dropped the third set, he had a comfortable 5-1 lead in the fourth set. But Svajda clawed his way back into the game and pushed the set to the tie-breaker. Cobolli was even broken twice while serving for the match, but he eventually won after three hours and 19 minutes. After his win, retired WTA player Carolina Garcia asked him this during the post-match interview:

That was a great battle out there. You won the first two sets a bit easier, and then the match got a bit more complicated. How happy are you with your performance and how you stayed positive and confident?

Cobolli, in response, first addressed the crowd before making a hilarious admission.

Merci a tous again [he told the crowd]. The only thing that I understood today is, the match is never done and I almost s*** on my pants. Now I’m happy, but still nervous. And yeah, I have to recover a bit now.

Cobolli will next be locking horns with Felix Auger-Aliassime or Alejandro Tabilo. He is a three-time ATP singles titlist and has already won two titles on clay and also made the final of this year’s Munich Open but failed to go past Ben Shelton.

In the first half of this quarter, Matteo Berrettini will face Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who defeated Jannik Sinner in the second round. Frances Tiafoe will clash with Matteo Arnaldi. In the second half of the draw, Jakub Mensik will face Joao Fonseca (who knocked out Novak Djokovic), while Rafael Jodar will lock horns with Alexander Zverev.

Two-time Roland Garros champion Carlos Alcaraz is not competing because of a wrist injury. He will also be skipping the Wimbledon championships, where in the previous three seasons, he made the final, winning in 2023 and 2024 by defeating Djokovic both times. But he lost to Sinner last year.

Also read: Marta Kostyuk Reveals Painful Split with Mother That Fueled Her Roland Garros Breakthrough