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Matteo Arnaldi registered one of the biggest wins of his career at Roland Garros on Friday as he upset sixth seed Andrey Rublev in the third round of the ongoing French Open 2024.
Responding to Rublev's aggressive play with heavy hitting of his own, the Italian tallied his third Top 10 victory with a 7-6(8), 6-2, 6-4 triumph to reach the fourth round. The 23-year-old miraculously saved a set point at 5/6 in the first-set tie-break before scoring three successive games, including an almost unbelievable angled forehand dig, to win the opening. Arnaldi pounded 47 winners to revenge his setback to Rublev in Vienna last year and tie the ATP Head2Head series at 1-1. The victory propels Arnaldi to a career-high No. 34 in the ATP Live Rankings, a significant improvement from 12 months ago when he participated at the French major as the World No. 106. The 23-year-old is in the fourth round of a Slam for the second time (2023 US Open) and will face either ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or China's Zhang Zhizhen. Rublev, winner of this year's ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid, is the highest seed to fall. "I was really nervous at the end because I was going to serve for the match for one of the biggest wins of my life. But I managed it really well... I was focussed on myself and doing the right thing," Arnaldi said as quoted by ATP. Earlier, Holger Rune survived a second-round scare at Roland Garros, defeating Italian Flavio Cobolli despite losing a two-set lead. Rune, a two-time quarter-finalist, unleashed his fiery competitive spirit as he won 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 7-6(10-7) in front of an energised Court 14. The Dane rallied from a 0/5 deficit in the deciding-set tie-break, scoring seven of the next eight points to close in on his eventual three-hour, 50-minute win. (ANI)
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