The Sanremo player achieves the best Grand Slam result in his career by beating the French talent born in 2004. Now there’s Norrie
It seems almost paradoxical, but at the age of 22 and for the first time at this level in his career, Matteo Arnaldi wins the match with experience against Arthur Fils, the rising star of French tennis. A very complicated match, in which Arnaldi suffers for a good hour of play, before making a dash and winning all the decisive points, giving himself a third round in a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. The 19-year-old, who is certainly a future top 10, will have the opportunity to make up for it, but Arnaldi has made monstrous giant steps in this 2023, becoming a player of the highest level. He finishes 3-6 7-5 7-6 (5) 5-7 6-3 for the Sanremo player, who will challenge Cameron Norrie in the round of 32 (easy success on the British’s Hsu). “I played a good game, I know him very well and we had already met in Madrid. I hope to face him in the future, because they are always great matches. It was a very good year, until the beginning of the year I had basically only played Next Gen, I was 140 in the world. Little by little we changed things”. Then a message to the audience. “I hope you screamed like I did, that I lost my voice. I’m waiting for you all against Norrie, maybe someone will come here to New York. I’ve been waiting for a long time to get to the third round of a Grand Slam”.
THE MATCH
—
After two consecutive games and an immediate break, Arnaldi loosens up and loses 6 of the next 7 games, leaving the first set in 34 minutes. In the second set, at 3-3, Matteo has to defend himself in a very tough game and cancels his opponent’s three chances to break. It is the turning point of the game, because Arnaldi comes close to breaking the serve, begins to take command of the exchanges, makes Fils nervous and breaks the decisive serve in the twelfth game, winning the set 7-5. The third set is all on serve, but if there is anyone who comes close to the break it is the blue: with a great point, Fils cancels a set point and drags the match to the tie-break, where Arnaldi opens with a monstrous volley and with an incredible lob, even off balance. The tie-break ends 7-5 and at the opening of the 4th set Arnaldi gets two new break points, neutralized by the Frenchman with 4 consecutive points. He proceeds on serve until the twelfth game, in a set identical to the second. There Arnaldi has an empty pass and the Frenchman finds a break that he hadn’t seen since the first set, bringing the match to the deciding set.
EPILOGUE
—
The inertia seems to favor Fils, but the Frenchman commits a disaster in the first game of the fifth set: two double faults, a wrong forehand, lost serve and Arnaldi flies. Fils goes out of his mind and saves a break point in the following innings, before having a half jolt, taking himself to 0-30, but Arnaldi sweeps him away with 4 consecutive points. The double break that comes in the fifth game seems like a goodnight to the Fils tournament, but Matteo serves disastrously in the sixth game, hits the last forehand and goes up 4-2. Arthur finds strength and shortens 3-4, bringing the match to the game of truth. The Ligurian goes down 0-30, but comes back with a serve, a smash on the line, a short ball and another winning serve. The Frenchman opens the game which is worth everything great, but Arnaldi puts in a passer and another great serve, before a gift from Arthur who sends a long volley. The first match point is canceled by Fils’ answer, the second is sent to the net by the Frenchman and he says that it takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to give yourself a joy you’ve never experienced. The embrace between two guys who will still do a lot in tennis is symptomatic of a splendid match, which Arnaldi will remember for a long time.
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED