Matteo Arnaldi’s improbable Roland-Garros run ended not on Court Philippe-Chatrier but in the locker room, the Italian withdrawing from Friday’s French Open semi-final against compatriot Flavio Cobolli after coming down with a virus and handing his countryman a walkover into Sunday’s final.
Tournament organisers delivered the news to a waiting Chatrier crowd at 6:35 pm local time, more than three hours after the all-Italian last-four meeting had been scheduled to begin. “Matteo Arnaldi is suffering from a virus and is not able to play his semi-final against Flavio Cobolli,” the announcement stated, adding that spectators holding tickets for the afternoon session would be reimbursed.
It was an anticlimactic end to one of the more remarkable fortnights the Paris clay has produced in years — and, by the reckoning of multiple outlets on Friday, an exceptionally rare walkover into a Grand Slam men’s singles final.
The run. Arnaldi, the world No. 104, had arrived in the semi-finals as the lowest-ranked man to reach the Roland-Garros last four since 1997, the product of a draw that scattered the seeds and a competitor who simply refused to leave. He got there the hard way. The 25-year-old spent more than 20 hours on court across his five rounds — the longest path to a Grand Slam semi-final since the ATP began recording match times in 1991.
The toll was visible long before Friday. Arnaldi opened with a four-set win over Tallon Griekspoor, then ousted 2021 finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas in four. A five-set third-round survival of Raphael Collignon, decided 7-6(4) in the fifth, was followed by another five-setter, an outlasting of Frances Tiafoe on Court Suzanne-Lenglen that finished after 1 am. His quarter-final never reached a natural conclusion either — Matteo Berrettini retired with a left hip injury while Arnaldi led 7-5, 5-2 in yet another all-Italian meeting on Wednesday.
By Friday, the tank was empty in a way no opponent had managed to force.
Cobolli through. For Cobolli, the manner of qualification will sting even as the result delights. The 10th seed reaches his first Grand Slam final without striking a ball on the day. The 24-year-old from Rome had earned his place on merit Wednesday, beating fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 — his first top-10 win at a major and a result that lifted him into the world’s top 10. “We have to be happy for Italian tennis,” Cobolli had said after that win, before the bracket arranged a final he could not have scripted.
He now carries Italian hopes into Sunday alone. In the final he will face Alexander Zverev, the German second seed reaching his second Roland-Garros final and fourth Grand Slam final after defeating Jakub Mensik in four sets.
For Arnaldi, the disappointment is acute but the breakthrough is real. A player ranked outside the top 100 a fortnight ago leaves Paris with a deep Grand Slam run, a clutch of marquee scalps and a name far better known than when he arrived. The body that carried him through four brutal matches finally gave out before the fifth — but not before he had rewritten the most unlikely chapter of his career.
