A hip injury ended the run of Matteo Berrettini at Roland-Garros in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The result sends compatriot Matteo Arnaldi into a historic all-Italian semi-final against Flavio Cobolli.
Matteo Berrettini retired in tears on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Wednesday evening, an apparent hip injury ending the 2021 Wimbledon finalist’s first Roland-Garros run in five years. Trailing Arnaldi 7-5, 5-2, the former world number six stopped after exactly two hours — making the 104th-ranked Arnaldi only the second man to win a Roland-Garros quarterfinal by retirement in the Open era.
Berrettini said the pain had begun early. “In the middle of the first set I started to feel something when I was serving,” he said. “The more I played, the more I served, the more forehands I hit, the worse I felt.” After a medical timeout during which he was told the area was badly inflamed, he concluded he had no option. “If I’d kept playing I’d have done way worse, and the recovery would have been longer,” he said. “I didn’t have any choice other than to retire.”
Berrettini wore on his face the pain not just of the injury but of the realisation of what was happening, before embracing Arnaldi upon his retirement. “I’m the last one that wants to retire. I’m so tired of it. I just don’t want to do it, but sometimes you have to do it,” he said. “It’s the worst feeling ever, but it’s the right thing to do, because it’s not the last tournament I’m going to play in my life.”
Arnaldi into uncharted territory
Arnaldi, ranked 104 in the world, advances to his first Grand Slam semi-final, where he faces tenth-seeded fellow Italian Flavio Cobolli — the first all-Italian semi-final at Roland-Garros in the Open era, and the first all-Italian Grand Slam semi-final since 1976.
The 25-year-old Ligurian has been one of the stories of the tournament. He had already logged the most hours on court en route to a major quarterfinal since 1991, and is the lowest-ranked man to reach the semi-finals or better in Paris since Belgian Filip Dewulf reached the last four in 1997 ranked number 122, and just the third man outside the top 100 to do so since 1990.
“It’s crazy to think I’m in the semifinals,” Arnaldi said. “I have been playing a lot, but at the same time I’m happy to be on court. I for sure have some energy left for the next matches.”
Italian tennis on the rise
The semi-final line-up underlines the remarkable depth of Italian men’s tennis at present. Cobolli reached the last four after defeating Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in his quarterfinal, setting up a clash between two players who, according to Arnaldi, have known each other since they were eleven or twelve years old.
