PARIS — Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi produced a sensational performance to take out No. 6 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia and reach the last 16 of the French Open on Friday.
Arnaldi, 23, saved a set point in the opening set and went on to dominate his emotionally-charged opponent for a 7-6 (8), 6-2, 6-4 victory to equal his best Grand Slam run.
Rublev ranted and raged at himself as the match began to slip away, thumping his racket into his legs and kicking his courtside bench as another chance at a deep Grand Slam run came to a bitter end on the Parisian dust.
Arnaldi, who also reached the fourth round of last year’s US Open, was rock-solid throughout and barely put a foot wrong as he posted one the biggest wins of his career.
Rublev has reached 10 Grand Slam quarterfinals without ever going further, but on this occasion even that proved beyond him as he could find no answer to Arnaldi’s accuracy and power.
He is the highest-seeded casualty so far in the men’s draw.
Arnaldi will play either Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas or China’s Zhang Zhizhen for a place in the quarterfinals.
There was nothing between the players in the opening set and it was the same in the tiebreak in which Arnaldi took a 5-3 lead only for Rublev to win the next three points.
Rublev could not convert his set point though and was then left shaking his head as Arnaldi claimed the opener, sprinting from behind the baseline to reach a drop shot and angle a stunning winner past the Russian.
“The first set was very important for me, because you know I’m not the favorite so going after a set like this down one set to love it’s never easy,” Arnaldi said on court.
“It’s incredible, I mean I think I played the best tennis for sure in my life I would say.”
Service breaks were exchanged early in the second set but Rublev began to boil as his forehand could not punch holes in the defenses of his opponent.
Arnaldi found the dampish court more to his liking with his shots appearing to have more penetration and Rublev buckled as his emotions once again began to get the better of him.
Arnaldi broke for a 4-3 lead in the third set and duly completed his first Grand Slam win against a top-10 player.
