Matteo Arnaldi still can’t believe his own eyes

Matteo Arnaldi still doesn’t believe it

It is an almost incredulous Matteo Arnaldi who entrusts his thoughts to the microphones of the Roland Garros organization after eliminating one of the tournament's 'big's, Andrey Rublev, in three sets. "It's unbelievable,” he said, “I think I played the best tennis of my life, and I did it for three sets. I didn't expect it either to play at this level".

" When you are on the court you start strong maybe you can think you will have a drop, instead I continued to play the same way,” added Arnaldi, who started the tournament as world number 35. Rublev definitely did not play his best tennis, but I applied the right tactics to put him under pressure and I would say it worked very well today".

For the 23-year-old from San Remo, the key è was the victory, on tie-break, of the first set: "It's been very important for me, because I was starting as an underdog. The first set gave me great charge, in the other two I kept pushing. Not even the court conditions, which were very different from the previous rounds, bothered me. It's been a great day".

Class of 2001, still waiting to win a tournament on the ATP Tour but a member of the Italian team that won the Davis Cup in 2023, Matteo Arnaldi, with his entry into the round of 16, equaled his own best result at the Grand Slam level: in fact, he had also reached the round of 16 at the 2023 US Open, surrendering only to Carlos Alcaraz.