An extremely rare phenomenon occurred on Friday at the French Open – the semi-final of such a grand tournament was cancelled.
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The reason for this was Matteo Arnaldi, who contracted a viral illness and unexpectedly appeared at a press conference with his opponent Flavio Cobolli (ATP-14).
“I think it’s some kind of virus. First I had chills, and then a fever during the day. I can’t move, I can’t eat, I can’t drink. As soon as I put something in my mouth, I immediately vomit. I tried to hold on as long as possible and try to step onto the court, but as soon as I stand up, I get dizzy, I have no chance to play. I wouldn’t wish withdrawing from a Grand Slam semi-final this way on anyone, but I believe I made the right decision,” Arnaldi explained.
Such a decision by the 25-year-old tennis player shocked not only the 15,000 strong crowd on the central Philippe Chatrier court, who will be refunded, but also tennis experts – even US tennis legend Andre Agassi did not hide his disappointment.
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M. Arnaldi’s withdrawal means that his compatriot F. Cobolli has reached his first career Grand Slam final, where he will face the clear favourite of the pair, Alexander Zverev (ATP-3), in Sunday’s final.
Although the German leads 3:1 in head-to-head matches, the Italian representative triumphed 6:3, 6:3 on clay in Munich a few months ago.
By the way, the last time a Grand Slam semi-final did not take place was in 2022 at Wimbledon, when an injured Rafael Nadal withdrew before facing Nick Kyrgios.
