Matteo Arnaldi surprised tennis fans with the unexpected way he shared he was pulling out of Roland Garros.
Tennis fans were left confused when Matteo Arnaldi said he had to pull out of his French Open semi-final against Flavio Cobolli.
Arnaldi, who wasn’t one of the top seeds at Roland Garros, had surprised everyone with some amazing wins to reach the last four. This included a tough five-set match against 19th seed Frances Tiafoe, who almost closed out the match in the fourth round. Then, in the quarter-final, Arnaldi was leading when his opponent Matteo Berrettini had to retire because of injury.
He was supposed to play another Italian, Cobolli, on Friday evening. But just a few hours before the match, Arnaldi announced he couldn’t play due to a viral illness. So, Cobolli gets a walkover into the final, where he will face Germany’s Alexander Zverev on Sunday.
Instead of a quick press release, Arnaldi held a press conference to explain the situation, with Cobolli there too, which was unusual. Arnaldi said he started feeling unwell Thursday night after dinner and threw up several times before Friday morning. He called a doctor and said he hadn’t been able to eat all day.
“I tried to get ready and stay here as much as possible. I wanted to see if I could play, but every time I stood up, I felt dizzy and just wasn’t feeling good,” he said.
After hearing this, fans all had similar reactions online:
“Not the best idea for Cobolli to be around him—unless it’s food poisoning,” one wrote.
“Really strange to share the same press conference,” said another.
“Why wouldn’t Arnaldi skip the press conference? Why didn’t Cobolli’s team say they wouldn’t take the risk?” asked someone else.
And another comment said, “Okay, I wasn’t crazy—this was a really bad idea.”
Cobolli shared that he felt emotional hearing Arnaldi had to withdraw. “I almost cried when I found out,” he said. “You just don’t expect this. I was ready to play and completely prepared.
“I’m really happy with how far I got this week. My dad came to see me, we hugged, and the whole team was there too. Now, I’m feeling both sad and happy at the same time.”