Previewing Sinner vs. Djokovic & Zverev vs. Fery w/ Brad Gilbert | Wimbledon 2026

**Gill Gross** (0:02)
Welcome, everyone, to this special interview edition of Monday Match Analysis. Today's episode is a conversation with the great Brad Gilbert, as we preview the 2026 Wimbledon men's semi-finals, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, rematch of Australia, Arthur Fery, the British wild card taking on Alexander Zverev in his first career. Wimbledon semi-final, really fun chat. I think you'll enjoy it. We're mostly looking forward at the semis, not talking much about today's quarterfinals, Wednesday's quarterfinals. So I will offer up just a few very quick notes on those two matches before we get to BG.
Fery beats Cobolli in straight sets again. Unbelievable. Just like Australia, which is a result that we kind of threw out and wrote off because of Cobolli's condition. There's no writing this one off. The unforced error difference for the match. Cobolli 41, Fery 15, and I don't want you to just note the gap. Obviously, that is a huge multiple of an unforced error advantage for Fery.
15 is just an incredibly low number for a three set match. That is a really admirable number from Arthur and it was the same story every single set. It's not like one set skewed this stat. Every set was the same story with Fery's consistency advantage. And by the way, every ground stroke was the same story. Forehand and backhand, Fery kept it a lot cleaner than Flavio. And I thought Fery was going to have trouble hitting through Cobolli, Cobolli's speed. But when you're the more consistent player, that doesn't matter so much. It was more so actually, Cobolli having a lot of trouble hitting through Fery's speed. Arthur Fery with an incredible performance when it comes to showcasing his grass court movement and also his ability to make a whole lot of balls. Cobolli also 34% second serve win rate. And this is all about Arthur Fery's backhand return, which is a gem of a shot. And we talk a little bit about it, me and BG. But the point I want to make real quick is there's no way. And this has been a common theme talking about Cobolli at various points in the last couple of years. He's only really got one second serve that he's comfortable going to. And it's a kick serve to the backhand. And when you're playing Arthur Fery on grass and you get predictable with that particular serve, you're really not going to get away with it. You're not going to be starting these points comfortably. Second serve variation, an area that I continue to want to see Cobolli develop. And when he goes up against some of these great backhand returns, in particular, he gets in some trouble.
Zverev versus Fritz.
Another thing that BG shouts out is Zverev's backhand slice. Look at the breakpoint conversion in, I believe, it was the fourth game of the match. So early on in the match, one-two, it's 30-40. The backhand chip that Zverev hits out of the corner is a perfect grass court shot, and it's also a perfect shot against Taylor Fritz.
It's low, it's short, it gets Taylor into this uncomfortable position on the court where he probably should come forward, but he doesn't want to. Certainly not with an approach shot from a low contact point.
And that is not a shot that you normally see Zverev hit. Likes to keep the two hands on the racket. This was a great example of a grass court shot by Zverev where he actually uses the slice expertly. Taylor feels his knee flare up a little while later. This is about midway through the first set when Fritz said after the match that he first felt the knee, which of course was the culprit for Taylor Fritz missing the vast majority of the clay court season. In fact, I don't think he had a clay court win all year long. Fritz's movement in this match wasn't awful in the sense that he's not limping around or hobbling around. Obviously, Taylor is not the quickest guy around the court even when healthy. I don't think that his court coverage was dramatically compromised. But you can't discount the mental component of this. To play through knee pain is really hard.
And sometimes with a knee, it's not all about court coverage. It's not necessarily that you can't get into the corners and you can't defend. Sometimes it's just the basic act of using your legs to hit shots, whether it be a serve, a forehand or a backhand, especially on this surface, you've got to get down to the ball and use your legs. When Nadal, for example, was having a lot of knee tendonitis problems in his career, this was the tournament he really struggled at when he was having the knee problems. He could manage it on clay just fine. On the grass, he wasn't getting away with it. The knees had to be healthy for Rafa to have success on the surface. So just a note there. There's a very weird symmetry here because the start of Taylor Fritz's seven-match win streak was when he played against Zverev at Wimbledon two years ago, 2023 Let me check that for a moment so I know. Sorry, 2024 Okay, I got the two years ago part right. 2024 Wimbledon was when Zverev started this win streak against Alexander Zverev. In that match, it was Sasha Zverev who was playing through a bum knee, who just wasn't 100%.