Despite the premature elimination of Jannik Sinner and the absence of Lorenzo Musetti, This year too, Italy will have a tennis player in the Roland Garros finalFlavio Cobolli or Matteo Arnaldi will face Alexander Zverev or Jakub Mensik in the final on Sunday, June 7th. The semifinals will both be played on Friday, June 5th, at times to be determined. This is a historic achievement for Italian tennis.: the participation of at least one Italian in the semi-final was already guaranteed by the derby in the quarter-finals between Arnaldi and Matteo Berrettini, but to repeat a derby in the next round, Cobolli also had to overcome his quarter-final against the Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime.
Cobolli defeated Auger-Aliassime in four sets, Berrettini retired against Arnaldi
Mission accomplished for the Roman, who, after losing the first set 6-4, won the next three sets by the same score, advancing to the semifinals, where he is now favored to face compatriot Arnaldi. The Ligurian, for his part, got the better of Berrettini, thanks in part to the withdrawal of his national teammate, but still led 7-5, 5-2. Arnaldi, who started the Paris tournament outside the top 100, now climbs to at least 34th place, very close to the career-best ranking achieved in 2024. Cobolli is also preparing for a big leap in the rankings: regardless of how the semifinal goes, he will officially enter the top 10 from next week.
The previous matches between Cobolli and Arnaldi, both on clay, are 1-1
There are two precedents between Cobolli and Arnaldi in official ATP circuit matches, both on red clayThe first, in 2023 in Umag, was won by Arnaldi in straight sets, while last year the two met at Roland Garros, with Cobolli prevailing in four sets. The two Italians had previously met three times on the Challenger and Future circuits, between 2021 and 2022, and again on clay: Arnaldi won twice and Cobolli once.
