Matteo Berrettini struggles: Matteo Arnaldi wins first set at Roland Garros

Matteo Arnaldi won the first set of his match against Matteo Berrettini, valid for the quarterfinals of Roland Garros. Down 0-3, the Ligurian tennis player reacted by challenging the Roman, who surrendered the first partial 7-5. Whoever wins will face Flavio Cobolli in the semifinals in Paris in another all-Italian derby.

First set with fireworks, there are four breaks in the first six games of the match: Berrettini starts 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 commits several errors, struggles at the serve and in the eighth game (which lasted 16 minutes) saves five break points. In the 12th game, however, came the decisive break that allowed Arnaldi to close out the first set 7-5.

Awaiting the winner in the semifinals will be Flavio Cobolli, who earlier in the day already wrote his own page of history by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime in a comeback with a score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Roman tennis player, beaming after his success, 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 them both the best of luck. It’s the best week of my life,” he said after the match.