Tennis legend Andre Agassi expressed grave shock in hearing the news of Matteo Arnaldi’s Roland Garros exit, right when things started to hit their most thrilling peak. The Italian withdrew from the French Open right before his semifinal clash, due to a severe viral illness. Agassi, however, felt that the Italian should have tried harder to take the court on Friday.
After winning his quarterfinal match against fellow Italian Matteo Berrettini, who retired midway through the battle due to a hip injury, Arnaldi was scheduled to take on Flavio Coboll for a spot in the final. However, just minutes before the session, Arnaldi announced his withdrawal in a shocking move..
As per Arnaldi, sometime after his last match, his illness took an unprecedented turn at 1 am, after the Italian reported issues with his stomach, right after having dinner, which led him to a long, sleepless night spent vomiting. Unable to sleep until 6 or 7 a.m., a doctor showed up to help, but the Italian was unable to digest any food and ultimately made the call to withdraw.
As the news of his withdrawal spread, Andre Agassi joined the team of analysts at Roland Garros and blasted the Italian for withdrawing at such a crucial stage of the event, calling it “disappointing.”
The former world No. 1 highlighted how “not showing up” eliminates all chances of success while reminding fans of his previous match, which had not been physically draining and should have given him great chances of recovering and playing.
“I could have beat Arnaldi today, at 56 years old. If you don’t show up, you can’t win, and it’s just dissapointing and I mean this tournament has been full of surprises and this is not the kind of surprise anybody wants to see, I mean he had two sets last match, physically, he would have been the best but obviously he is dealing with something that better be unimaginable because it is dissappointing,” said Agassi at the TNT Sports Desk.
For Arnaldi, this was his first major quarterfinal after he battled through four matches, spending a total of 17 hours and 42 minutes on court.
The men’s final match is now set between the No. 2-seeded Alexander Zverev and Italy’s Flavio Cobolli, for whom it’s a first-ever Grand Slam final.
Flavio Cobolli Gets Emotional Talking About Matteo Arnaldi’s Withdrawal
An all-Italian clash in Paris was just a hair’s breadth away when Matteo Arnaldi reported health issues and ultimately had to retire from the event. During the aforementioned press conference, after Arnaldi had briefed the media on his health, his opponent Flavio Cobolli choked up when talking about the excitement he had for this match and his regret at seeing it go missing.
“It’s tough for me to speak now. When it come to me almost one hour ago, I cried. It’s something that you don’t expect at all, I was ready to play this match but at the same time I was happy for this result I got this week. So now I’m sad and happy at the same time,” said Cobolli (3:50).
Cobolli will now take on Alexander Zverev in Sunday’s final, with both players gunning for their maiden Grand Slam title.
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