Matteo Berrettini, bitter epilogue at Roland Garros: new injury, Matteo Arnaldi in semifinals
Bitter Roland Garros epilogue for Matteo Berrettini: the Roman tennis player was forced to retire during his match against Matteo Arnaldi, valid for the quarterfinals of the Paris tournament. At the score of 7-5, 5-2 for the Ligurian tennis player, Berrettini decided to stop due to a physical problem, leaving the way clear for his compatriot, who wins his first career Slam tournament semifinal. Arnaldi will play Friday for a place in the final in another Italian derby against Flavio Cobolli, who in the afternoon overcame Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in four sets.
First set with fireworks, there are four breaks in the first six games of the match: Berrettini starts off very strong right away, and goes ahead 3-0 after two breaks in the first and third game. Arnaldi perhaps pays the emotion of playing on the Chatrier and struggles to get into gear in the first games, but as soon as he enters the match he sends the Roman into serious trouble, stealing his serve in the fourth and sixth games, thus rebalancing the match at 3-3. Berrettini makes several errors, struggles at the serve and in the eighth game (which lasted 16 minutes) saves 5 break points. In the 12th game, however, came the decisive break that allowed Arnaldi to close out the first set 7-5.
In the second set, the Ligurian tennis player immediately placed a break in the second game, while the Roman continued to suffer at bat. In the third game Berrettini regained the break and then called for a medical time-out due to an abdominal problem. The Azzurro returns to the court but clearly struggles and begins to limp: at the score of 5-2 he decides to retire.
Awaiting Arnaldi in the semifinals will be Flavio Cobolli, who earlier in the day has already written his own page of history by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime in a comeback with the score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Roman tennis player, beaming after his success, had wanted to send a thought to the two Matthews: “I know there will be a Matteo in the semifinals with me. They are two very good friends, I wish both of them good luck. It’s the best week of my life,” he said after the match.
