Paris (France) (AFP) – Flavio Cobolli will face Alexander Zverev in the French Open final after his semi-final opponent and fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi pulled out of the tournament due to illness on Friday.
Issued on: 05/06/2026 - 19:08
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Matteo Arnaldi (R) and Flavio Cobolli gave a joint press conference following the forfeit of Arnaldi ahead of their semi-final © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Cobolli, the 10th seed, was due to be playing in his first Grand Slam semi-final but will instead benefit from some extra rest ahead of Sunday's final."It's tough for me to speak also. When he came to me an hour ago I almost cried," said Cobolli of his friend Arnaldi, as they held a joint press conference while sitting three metres apart."I was ready to play this match and when he came I was completely sad for him, but at the same time of course I'm really happy for the result that I reached this week."World number 104 Arnaldi had spent the most amount of time on court for a player en route to a Grand Slam semi-final, winning marathon matches in the third and fourth rounds.His quarter-final opponent Matteo Berrettini retired injured in the second set of their last-eight tie.But Arnaldi's dreams of a remarkable Slam title were ended by a virus."It's tough, because for how the tournament was, for how many hours I've been on the court, I was feeling actually very good," he said."To have to withdraw from the first (Grand Slam) semi-finals is not something that you wish to do anyway, and I tried to get ready and try to stay as much as I could here and try to see if I could go forward."But every time I get up I feel dizzy and I don't feel like the best, and I'm pretty sure if I eat again I'm not going to feel good, so that was the right decision."
