Arnaldi had spent a total of 17 hours and 42 minutes on court en route to his maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal, which broke the record for longest time on court en route to a Grand Slam quarterfinal since the ATP started recording match times in 1991. He won his first two rounds in four sets and his last two in five.
But on Wednesday night, he got a bit of a reprieve.
“I’m tired, that’s for sure, but you know I train and I play tennis to play these kinds of tournaments, these kinds of matches, so I’m trying to give it all that I’ve got,” he said. “Obviously today I was a little bit more tired than usual. I wasn’t as fast as I think I was in the first match. But I’m here and I’m enjoying to play tennis again—I was injured until not that long ago, so I’m happy to be here and give all I have.”
Before Roland Garros this year, Arnaldi had never been past the fourth round of a major, going that far at the US Open in 2023 and in Paris in 2024. Now, he’s into his first major semifinal.
“It’s unbelievable to be honest. I still can’t believe it,” he said of the achievement. “If I think what I was a month ago, I was almost No. 150 in the world and played the Challenger in Cagliari, now I trained how I wanted and now I’m here. I’m just happy to be here and happy to play these matches again.”
Currently ranked No. 104, Arnaldi is projected to soar to No. 34 by reaching the semifinals, according to the ATP’s official live rankings. His career-high ranking is No. 30, which he would surpass with one more win here.
