Who Is Flavio Cobolli’s Coach, Stefano Cobolli?

3 min read

Flavio Cobolli arrived at the 2026 French Open seeded 10th and left as a finalist. The 24-year-old Italian, who began the year outside the top 15, made the deepest Grand Slam run of his career at Roland Garros, reaching the final in what has become one of the most chaotic tournaments in recent memory.

Guiding him through it all was his father, Stefano Cobolli, who has coached Flavio since he was 17 years old. Below, get to know more about Stefano:

Stefano was a professional tennis player himself.

Born in La Spezia, Italy in 1977, Stefano turned professional in 1995 and reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 236 on the ATP Tour. His best result came at the 1998 Croatia Open in Umag, where he qualified for the main draw and defeated Tomáš Čatár in the first round before pushing eventual finalist Magnus Norman to three sets in the second round. His professional playing career was relatively brief, but it gave him a firsthand understanding of what it takes to compete at the top level of the sport.

He waited until Flavio was ready before stepping in as coach.

After becoming a professional tennis coach in 2011, Stefano did not rush into a coaching role with his son. When Flavio was young, the two made a deliberate effort to keep tennis separate from their relationship, with Flavio spending much of his free time playing soccer. “He wanted me to improve alone and then he said when I was ready he would help,” Flavio told ATPTour.com last year. They began working together around 2019, when Flavio was 17. Stefano now coaches out of the Rome Tennis Academy, where he has worked with other players alongside his work with Flavio.

Stefano has guided Flavio through some of his biggest career milestones.Jordan Pettitt – PA Images//Getty Images

Stefano (center in the On sweatshirt) hugging Flavio after the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2025.

Under Stefano’s coaching, Flavio won his first ATP title in Bucharest in 2025, followed by a second at the Hamburg Open later that year, defeating Andrey Rublev in the final. He also guided Flavio to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon in 2025 and his first Masters final in Washington in 2024. The 2026 French Open run to the final represents the highest point of their partnership to date.

They are part of a growing trend of father-son coaching partnerships on tour.

The ATP Tour has seen a number of successful father-son coaching partnerships in recent years. Casper Ruud has won 12 tour-level titles under the guidance of his father, former player Christian Ruud. Ben Shelton has claimed titles in Tokyo and Houston alongside his father, Bryan Shelton. Sebastian Korda won titles in Parma and Washington with his father, former world No. 2 Petr Korda, in his corner. “We have put in a lot of work together since we started,” Flavio told ATPTour about working with his father, “And last year was really good. We want to do more now.”

Off the court, tennis is off the table.

Working with a family member is not without its complications, and Flavio has spoken candidly about the ground rules the two established to make it work. “It is tough when your dad is your coach,” Flavio said in the tour interview. “If we fight on court, we keep it on court. It can be tough on court at times because we both want to be right, but he is a great person and I love working with him.”

Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.