Cobolli reached a first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon last year but leapfrogged that barrier at Roland Garros.
After reaching the second week without losing a set, he overcame Zachary Svajda in four, then outplayed world No.6 Felix Auger-Aliassime, also in four, to reach his first major semifinal.
Until this year, Cobolli had never won a completed match against a top-10 player. This claycourt season alone, he beat three – first Zverev, en route to the Munich final, and then Daniil Medvedev in Madrid.
And those breakthroughs followed his first ATP title on hard courts in Acapulco earlier this year.
After beginning 2026 outside the top 20, the 24-year-old has since soared to world No.10, and looks set to complete a seventh straight season with a better year-end ranking than the previous year.
“[Future success] is something that you cannot predict, but I will try. Like I said before, I will try and try and try, but when you reach the first final, why not the second?” Cobolli said.
“At the end, I think I deserve to be here on these weeks. Maybe not in the next 10, 15 Slams, but like I said also in the ceremony, I’m still young.
“So I have to do work a lot, enjoy this journey, and maybe if I work and enjoy a mix of things, maybe I will reach again the final.”