Cobolli uses Nadal’s shower as he reaches first Grand Slam semi-final

Flavio Cobolli has been leaning on ritual to keep a breakthrough run alive in Paris, down to using Rafael Nadal’s preferred shower cubicle at Roland Garros. The world No. 14 said he has kept the same restaurant, the same menu and the same shower during this campaign, a small set of habits that reflect how superstition can shape the mind of a player trying to step into a Grand Slam spotlight.

Cobolli said Nadal once told him the stall was his shower since he was 14 years old, after Cobolli had delayed him there. That detail matters because Nadal’s shadow still hangs over Roland Garros more than a year after his farewell ceremony on May 25, 2025, and six months after his retirement in November 2024. Nadal won the tournament a record 14 times, collecting titles in 2005-08, 2010-14, 2017-2020 and 2022, and for younger players the stadium still carries that mythology in every corridor and routine.

For Cobolli, the habits have coincided with his deepest Grand Slam run. The 24-year-old Italian reached the second week at Roland-Garros for the first time on Saturday, May 30, 2026, when he beat Learner Tien 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 46 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier. On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, he went one step further, defeating fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to reach his maiden Grand Slam semi-final.

The result capped a sharp reversal for Cobolli, who arrived in Paris after a difficult stretch. He had lost three of his previous four matches, and his season had already included a straight-sets first-round defeat at the Australian Open to then-world No. 186 Arthur Fery. He had reached a major quarter-final before, at Wimbledon in 2025, but Paris turned his work into something larger, and perhaps a little more talismanic.

Cobolli’s next opponent was set to be another Italian, either Matteo Arnaldi or Matteo Berrettini, giving the nation a rare and historic foothold in the closing stages at Roland Garros. In a tournament built on memory as much as momentum, Cobolli’s run has shown how elite tennis is often decided by more than serve and return. Sometimes it is also shaped by the stories players borrow, the places they avoid changing and, in Paris, even by the shower they choose.