Matteo Arnaldi looked down and out in his fourth-round clash against Frances Tiafoe at Roland Garros Monday night, but he staged a remarkable comeback to outlast the American and reach his first major quarter-final.
The 25-year-old prevailed 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 in five hours and 26 minutes. The Italian trailed 1-4 — down two breaks — in the fourth set and twice stood two points from defeat when Tiafoe served at 5-4, 30/0 and later at 40/40.
But Arnaldi displayed tremendous resolve and composure and eventually clinched the fourth set in a dramatic tie-break. Riding that momentum, he broke Tiafoe’s serve two times in the deciding set to complete a stunning comeback and seal his milestone victory.
"I always dreamed of playing a match at Roland Garros at night," Arnaldi said. "This battle against Frances, at one point it wasn't tennis, it was something else. You were just playing with everything you had. There had to be a winner tonight, and fortunately it was me. This is definitely the best match I ever played."
When Tiafoe earned a double-break lead, the American looked well on his way to his second consecutive Roland Garros quarter-final and his sixth major quarter-final overall. The 19th seed was seizing control of rallies and rarely letting go, playing with confidence in front of the energised crowd.
But if Arnaldi was one thing in the match, it was resilient. The former World No. 30 faced 25 break points in the match and saved 17 of them, according to Infosys Stats. Arnaldi engaged the crowd and showed off incredible defence under the most dire conditions on the Parisian clay.
Time and time again, the winner found a way to make Tiafoe play an extra ball, earning the appreciation of the crowd by never giving up on points. And finally, when he converted his third match point with an unreturned serve, Arnaldi looked at his team with his hands on his head in disbelief.
The Italian has now spent an astonishing 17 hours and 42 minutes to reach the Roland Garros quarter-finals, one hour and 58 minutes longer than any other player has taken to make the quarter-finals at any Grand Slam tournament since the ATP Tour began recording match times in 1991.
By improving to 2-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Tiafoe, Arnaldi set a quarter-final clash with countryman Matteo Berrettini. Earlier in the day, Berrettini defeated Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6(2), 7-6(6). With the triumph, the World No. 105 became the lowest-ranked man to reach the quarter-finals at the clay major since No. 125 Igor Andreev in 2007.
With Arnaldi, Berrettini and also Flavio Cobolli in the last eight, it's the first time in Grand Slam history that three Italian men have reached the last eight at the same event. Across all Grand Slam tournaments, this was only the ninth time in history, and just the fourth time in the Open Era, that three Italians were in the fourth round. The most recent occurrence came at the Australian Open in January, when Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti and Luciano Darderi all reached the fourth round.
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