Italian imitates Matheus Cunha's celebration after advancing at Wimbledon
Brazil already has more representatives in the women's and men's singles draws at Wimbledon, and Italy is once again watching the World Cup from the couch, but the two universes came together this Saturday in London.
With knees bent and arms open, emulating the celebration of striker Matheus Cunha, Italian tennis player Flávio Cobolli celebrated his passage to the round of 16 of the British Grand Slam.
"It was a bet I made with my coach. We were watching the World Cup and that's how Brazilians celebrate, I really liked it. Last time I forgot to do it, this time I did it," said Cobolli, a Roma fan and fan of Francesco Totti.
Check out the celebration:
Cobolli the entertainer #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/7LCeGXjFU9
- Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) July 4, 2026
Tenth in the world rankings and runner-up at Roland Garros, Cobolli overcame a stomach problem in the first set and after four hours beat Russian Karen Khachanov, 22nd in the world, 3-2, with scores of 0-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 and 6-2, and after greeting his rival at the net and putting away his racket, he returned to the center of the court 2 at Wimbledon and made the gestures in reference to surfing.
Matheus Cunha, scorer of two goals against Haiti and one against Scotland in the World Cup, started taking surfing lessons and recently improved in the sport. The 27-year-old striker usually celebrates this way when scoring for his club, Manchester United.
The only reason people from Paraíba don't catch waves more often is because Manchester doesn't have a beach. Surfing brought the striker closer to Ítalo Ferreira, world surfing champion and Olympic champion at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
At Wimbledon, Cobolli will now face Australian Alex de Minaur, sixth in the world, for a place in the quarterfinals. The Australian won both times they faced each other.
Tennis player is fined R$327,000 after sexist speech about Brazilian referee
Source: CNN