French Open: Matteo Arnaldi stuns Frances Tiafoe in grueling 5-set match to advance to quarterfinals

The last American has fallen in Roland-Garros, with Frances Tiafoe becoming the latest top player to exit the tournament. Tiafoe, the No. 19 seed, fell to unranked Matteo Arnaldi in the fourth round after five sets, 7(7)-6(5), 6(5)-7(7), 3-6, 7(7)-6(3), 6-4.

In a match with three tiebreaks that lasted past 1 a.m. local time in Paris, Arnaldi pushed late in the match to get out of a 2-1 hole and force a deciding fifth set, which he eventually won to advance to his first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal.

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A tight, grueling matchup quickly gave way as Tiafoe suddenly dominated Arnaldi in the third set, before Arnaldi came marching back. At one point, it seemed as though the match might stretch past the five-hour mark; then, it looked like Tiafoe might lock things up before the four-hour mark.

Instead, the match turned into a marathon, stretching five hours and 26 minutes. Arnaldi won the first set off a tiebreak, before Tiafoe won the second tiebreak, hitting the two and half hour mark before the match was even halfway done.

In comparison, the third set came much easier to Tiafoe, who picked up a key break to take a 4-2 lead. The American rode that momentum to take a match lead, and then kept rolling to start the fourth set. But Arnaldi didn’t let up: Spurred on by a small but loud contingent of Italian fans, Arnaldi came back from being down 4-1 in the fourth set to eventually force a deciding set.

Tiafoe didn’t back down either, forcing yet another tiebreak, but the wear of the matches started to show: Tiafoe had two double faults in the tiebreak, including one that gave Arnaldi his seventh point and sent the game to a fifth set.

The deciding set started evenly, but partway through, Arnaldi started to pull away against an exhausted-looking Tiafoe. For a moment, Tiafoe showed some spark, rolling through a break and picking up some skillful points to bring the game even at 4-4. But Arnaldi pulled back to get within one game of his first quarterfinals appearance.

That’s when Tiafoe, with his back covered in red clay after diving for a shot, dug deep to stay alive, denying Arnaldi two match points, before the Italian finally broke through for the win.

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It was the third five-set match in a row for Tiafoe, with the American outlasting Hubert Hurkacz in the second round before staving off an upset from Jaime Faria in the third round. All three of these matches were over five hours, with multiple tiebreaks; in a way, it’s not surprising that something finally broke for Tiafoe. But even in the loss, Tiafoe put it all out on the court despite clearly pushing his body to the limit.

Meanwhile Arnaldi, who has never made it past the fourth round in a major, became the third Italian to win and advance to the men’s quarterfinals on Monday, joining Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli. Arnaldi will now face countryman (and fellow Matteo) Berrettini in the quarterfinals, while No. 10-seeded Cobolli will face No. 4-seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.

This story will be updated.