Flavio Cobolli’s father reveals death threat to son as he vows to ‘fight this plague’

Flavio Cobolli’s father, Stefano, has made an impassioned plea to social media companies to do something about the online abuse aimed at sports stars after his son received a death threat after his loss at the Shanghai Masters.

World No 7 Cobolli’s poor run of form during the Asian swing continued as he followed up his first-round defeat at last week’s China Open with a second-round loss to Adrian Mannarino at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

Despite the back-to-back losses, the Italian remains in the hunt for a ticket to the ATP Finals as he is currently fifth in the Race To Turin with five more places up for grabs.

One social media user took things way too far as after the Shanghai match, as the person sent the following message – in Italian – to Stefano Cobolli, writing: “Forget about the Finals, your son should get cancer and die, you f****** piece of s***.”

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Cobolli senior shared the message on an Instagram Story and then delivered an important message to other parents.

“I usually try to delete these comments without giving them a second thought… (and there are loads of them),” he wrote. “But something must be done!

“Perhaps I should delete my social media accounts? It’s certainly one solution and I’ll think about it but for now I still feel I must fight this plague if possible, and perhaps that young lady will think twice next time!

“I hope this message reaches the parents of Fabiola. We’re strong, we’re sportspeople and we overcome obstacles far greater than an Instagram comment, but there are so many people who might suffer because of this and it’s not fair!

“So, dear parents, let’s keep an eye on what our children are doing on social media too; in my opinion, it’s important.”

Cobolli remains on course to qualify for the ATP Finals as he sits on 3,540 points with Alex de Minaur, the first player outside the top eight in the Race, on 2,730 points with only a couple of tournaments remaining during the regular ATP Tour season.

But the issue of social media abuse was also in the news earlier in the week when two-time Grand Slam winner Coco Gauff was racially abused on X following a contentious point during her third-round win over 16-year-old Sun Xinran at the China Open.

The American later told the media: “I mean, it has been kind of draining, I’m not going to lie. I just turn off my phone and move on. I mean, there’s nothing you can do.”