In many respects, Flavio Cobolli has been flying under the radar for the past week. It is not that his run to the quarter-finals is a huge surprise, it is just that in the rise and rise of Italian tennis, it is easy to get lost in the crowd.

There were 11 men in the gentlemen’s draw when The Championships began and by breakfast time on Day 8, there were three of them left. Including Cobolli. And as Marin Cilic discovered, you overlook Cobolli at your peril.

The 23-year-old from Florence won 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(3). His legs are 13 years younger than Cilic’s and his body has not been worn down by two decades of competition. And he is very, very good.

This has been a breakthrough year for the Italian.

He won his first two titles (the ATP 250 in Bucharest and the ATP 500 in Hamburg) and he is at a career-high ranking of No.24. Now he is through to his first Grand Slam quarter-final and on grass to boot.

He had only played 14 main draw matches on the green stuff in his life as he faced Cilic and yet now he was, potentially, two matches away from the Wimbledon final.

“I was always dreaming to be here, to play this tournament,” he said. “You cannot imagine my emotion right now because I started to play tennis because of these kind of matches, this kind of tournament.

“Now I am very proud of myself. I am very proud of my team.

“I have all my family here so it’s very special. My dad is crying right now, my brother too. Also my great friend is here.

“It’s a moment that I cannot forget and I am very happy and I’m looking forward to the quarter-final.”

Then, he added with a cheeky grin: “I hope to play on a big court this time because I never played there. And now I think I deserve it.”

After beating a man he described as “a legend” in the sport to reach the last eight, he will definitely get a bigger court next time.

Many in the medical professional warn against consulting Dr Google. Even the sanest and sturdiest of souls can get lost down internet rabbit holes and convince themselves that the throbbing pain in their foot requires amputation at the very least when, in fact, they simply have a splinter in their big toe.

But it was the saving of Cilic’s career.

At the start of 2023, he was sitting comfortably in the world’s top 20. He was a former US Open champion. All was well with his world.

And then, in Pune, India, he hurt his knee and needed surgery. Doing everything he was told, he rehabbed and worked and trained.

And still the knee would not heal. After 15 months, he was still in pain and had managed to play only a handful of matches.

He turned to the internet and researched treatments and training programmes; he read medical papers and theses until finally he found an orthopaedic surgeon in Chicago who could help him.

That meant another operation and more months of rehab but Cilic was willing to give it a go.

In the meantime, his ranking had fallen off a cliff (he was now outside the world’s top 1,000) and he had to rebuild his career from scratch, dropping down to the Challenger circuit and slowly collecting ranking points.

Today, the tall and charming Croatian is the world No.83 but he wants more. Unfortunately for him, his younger rival was in no mood to oblige.

From the outset, Cobolli was just that bit better in the two vital areas: the serve and the return. He was not serving as many aces as Cilic but he was more accurate with his delivery.

As for the return, he was making more headway on Cilic’s first serve than the Croatian was on his. That took care of the first couple of sets.

As the third set began, Cilic’s camp were telling him to take it point by point, game by game. He listened intently and followed their instructions.

That helped keep his own serve safe and sound and, at the same time, he managed to get Cobolli on the move from the baseline.

He tightened up his backhand (fewer errors and a bit more bite) and manufactured three set points in the 12th game and another couple in the tie-break. Cilic was back in business.

Without breaking step, the Croatian marched into the fourth set following the same route map. Serve big, pull the younger man from side to side and then start bombarding him with massive groundstrokes.

After three hours, it earned Cilic his first break of serve.

Three minutes later, and with a backhand crosscourt pass, Cobolli broke straight back and went on to hold his nerve in the subsequent tie-break.

Cilic’s race had been run and Italy had yet another young star to cheer in SW19.

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