Paris, June 5 (IANS) The first all-Italian men’s singles semifinal at the French Open ended in heartbreak for Matteo Arnaldi as he had to withdraw from his match against Flavio Cobolli due to viral illness in Paris on Friday. This means that Cobolli has advanced to his first Grand Slam final, where he will face Alexander Zverev on Sunday.

Arnaldi has been suffering from a viral illness since the early hours of Friday and informed the organisers that he was not strong or healthy enough to attend the Court Philippe-Chatrier for the second semifinal match.

The No. 34 player in the ATP Live Rankings later revealed that he vomited overnight from Thursday to Friday and was unable to take to the court and compete.

“It’s difficult to be here. It’s not what I wanted to do, but last night I started to feel not very well,” Arnaldi said, who conducted his press conference alongside his compatriot Cobolli. “Yesterday I was feeling okay. I came here to practise. I did everything I had to do, and I was feeling fine.

“Then I had dinner. I started to feel so-so with my stomach. I was, like, ‘Alright, just didn’t digest very well. But then I woke up at 1 a.m., and I started vomiting, and I wasn’t feeling the best,” said Arnaldi.

Arnaldi explained that he attempted to sleep at that point, but “couldn’t sleep at all”. At 6 or 7 a.m., he vomited again.

“This time was pretty bad. We called the doctor in the room. He came, gave me some stuff,” Arnaldi was quoted as saying by the ATP Tour on its official website. “I was hoping that it would just be something from dinner or something like that, but then throughout the day, I couldn’t eat. Every time we did something or would drink, I would go back to the bathroom.”

The last time a player withdrew at this stage of a major was at Wimbledon in 2022, when Rafael Nadal withdrew before facing Nick Kyrgios in the semifinals.

Cobolli had reached the semifinal with a four-set victory over fourth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who was aiming to reach the last four at a major for the third time. In an explosive performance under the roof on Court Philippe-Chatrier, the 24-year-old Italian earned a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win. He will now play Zverev in the summit clash.

Zverev leads Cobolli 3-1 in their ATP head-to-head series. They played in the third round at Roland Garros last year, when Zverev triumphed 6-2, 7-6(4), 6-1.

Second-seeded Zverev will be competing in his fourth major final, while Cobolli will play for a Grand Slam trophy for the first time. The Italian’s previous best run at a major came at Wimbledon last year, when he made the quarterfinals.

–IANS

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