Matteo Arnaldi, breakthrough in sight for 2026
Matteo Arnaldi is ready to turn his career around. After a complicated 2025, marked by a foot injury and results below expectations that caused him to slip down to number 61 in the world ranking, the Ligurian tennis player has decided to change course and rely on new technical guidance: the choice has fallen on Marcel du Coudray, who will officially join his team starting in 2026. The path with Alessandro Petrone, the coach who had followed him for the past five years and with whom he had achieved important goals, including the historic Davis Cup in 2023, has therefore come to an end: Arnaldi is now looking ahead, with the goal of regaining continuity and returning to express the level that had brought him, in August 2024, up to the 29th position in the ranking.
The new course will begin with the new coach, who will be in charge of the team.
The new course will begin as early as the first weeks of 2026, with the Australian events of Brisbane, Jan. 4 to 11, and Adelaide, where Arnaldi will be joined by the new coach along with the rest of the staff, which has remained unchanged, consisting of Matteo Civarolo, Diego Silva, Filippo Ferraris and Simone Sestagalli. Du Coudray, born in 1977, boasts collaborations with such notable names as former ATP No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko, Kamil Majchrzak, the Peers/Kontinen doubles team, and South African Lloyd Harris, who rose to No. 31 in the world rankings in 2021. More recently, he has also worked with British youngsters such as Jacob Fearnley and Johannus Monday.
Arnaldi comes from a not easy season, whose overall record tells of several ups and downs, with some prestigious wins but no continuity. The Madrid Open represented the high point, with wins over Djokovic and Tiafoe and the’landing in the quarters, where he was eliminated by Jack Draper. The second half was much more complicated: quarters in Geneva again against Djokovic, second round at Roland Garros after beating Auger-Aliassime, premature exits in the first round at Wimbledon and in the third in Washington and Toronto (where he had deluded against Zverev by winning the first set), to four consecutive eliminations in his debut, including one at the US Open against Cerundolo, despite the initial two-set lead against the Argentine.
The season finale confirmed the difficulties: out of the qualifiers at the China Open, second round in Shanghai, a good run in Vienna until the round of 16 (still stopped by Zverev), and finally the first-round stop at the Paris Masters. Arnaldi, who had been an active participant in the victorious Davis Cup finals in 2023, was not summoned to the Final Eight for the second time in a row.
Arnaldi is eager to rise again in 2026, forgetting the injuries and fluctuating results that caused him to slip out of the Top 50. In fact, the arrival of Marcel du Coudray marks the’beginning of a new phase: the Ligurian tennis player aims to regain continuity and confidence as early as the Australian tournaments, with the goal of relaunching himself and becoming a major player again on the ATP circuit.
