Flavio Cobolli will face second seed Alexander Zverev in the French Open final on June 7 after Arnaldi pulled out minutes before their semi-final due to a viral illness [1, 2, 3, 4].
Arnaldi started feeling unwell the night before the match, suffering from stomach pain and vomiting, which forced his withdrawal despite reaching his maiden Grand Slam semi-final at just ATP rank 104 [2, 3, 4]. "Last night I started to feel so, so in my stomach and then I woke up at 1am and started vomiting," Arnaldi said. "I could not sleep at all... every time I would eat or drink I would go back to the bathroom," he added [2].
Cobolli, seeded 10th, expressed mixed emotions: "When he came to me almost one hour ago, I almost cried. I was ready to play this match. Yeah, now I’m sad and happy at the same time," he said [4]. He also noted the nearly four-day break before the final could disrupt his rhythm but felt confident at the warm-up [5].
Zverev, the tournament's second seed seeking his first Grand Slam title after three previous final losses, reached the final by defeating Jakub Mensik on June 5 [6, 5, 4]. "The only thing I can control is that I play good tennis," said Zverev. "I'll try to show my level," he added [6].
Arnaldi had been the surprise of the tournament, becoming the third Italian man to reach the French Open quarter-finals with a five-set victory over Frances Tiafoe on June 1 in a match lasting 5 hours 26 minutes [7, 8, 9]. He spent a total of 17 hours 42 minutes on court by that stage — the longest for any Grand Slam quarter-finalist since 1991 [7, 8, 9]. Arnaldi then advanced to the semi-finals after Matteo Berrettini retired injured in their quarter-final [10, 11].
Cobolli reached the semi-final by winning his quarter-final match, setting up the all-Italian semi-final that never took place [10, 4].
The men’s French Open final between Cobolli and Zverev is scheduled for today, June 7, with both players contesting their first Roland Garros final [2, 6, 3, 5, 12, 4].
