Matteo Arnaldi’s rise continued with a 7-6(6), 6-2, 6-4 upset of Andrey Rublev in round three of the French Open on Friday afternoon. Arnaldi saved a set point at 5-6 in the opening tiebreaker and after that was on his way to a victory in two hours and 33 minutes.
The 23-year-old Italian is up to No. 35 in the rankings–already a career high–and will break into the top 30 if he wins his next match.
“It’s incredible,” Arnaldi assured. “I think I played the best tennis of my life, I’d say, because to do it for three sets…it’s easy to do in two sets in a normal tournament, but in a slam playing three sets (at) this level I think I wasn’t even expecting (it).
“You know when you’re playing and you’re two sets to love and you’re like, ‘maybe I will have a little [dip],’ but I continued to play like this. For sure he didn’t play his best tennis, but I used the right tactic to put him under pressure and today it worked very well.”
Arnaldi will battle Stefanos Tsitsipas for a spot in the quarterfinals after the Greek took care of Zhizhen Zhang 6-3, 6-3, 6-1. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Corentin Moutet also advanced under closed roofs on another rainy day in Paris.
Suspended matches currently in progress are Hubert Hurkacz vs. Denis Shapovalov, Ben Shelton vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Grigor Dimitrov vs. Zizou Bergs.
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nice one, Matteo