PARIS — Matteo Arnaldi fought back against fading Frances Tiafoe to win 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 early on Tuesday and become the third Italian in the French Open men’s last eight.
The match lasted five hours and 26 minutes and ended with both men moving as if badly blistered.
“I don’t know how I am standing here,” said Arnaldi, adding that he had been hobbled by a foot injury earlier in the year.
It was his second consecutive five-hour match after his five-set win over Raphael Collignon in the previous round.
“In the third set, I was so tired,” he said according to AFP.
Tiafoe appeared to be cruising when he raced 4-1 ahead with a double-break in the fourth set, flat-footing Arnaldi with quick hands and unexpected angles.
Instead, with the Americans’ own footwork slowing, Arnaldi won nine of the next 13 games, as well as a tie-break, to move 4-2 ahead in the fifth. Yet the 28-year-old Tiafoe hauled himself to 4-4.
Arnaldi seized back the initiative by breaking to love.
The Italian wasted a first match point with a double-fault, but, despite some brave hitting by Tiafoe, finally took his third chance.
“At some point, it wasn’t tennis, it was something else,” Arnaldi said. “You were just playing with everything you had. There had to be a winner and fortunately, it was me.”
Arnaldi will face another unseeded Italian, resurgent Matteo Berrettini, in the quarterfinals.
Flavio Cobolli, the top Italian seed at 10 following the early elimination of world No 1 Jannik Sinner, will play fourth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last eight.
