Berrettini retires against Arnaldi, the all-Italian semi-final goes to the world No. 104
Matteo Berrettini retired in tears at 5-7, 2-5 down to compatriot Matteo Arnaldi on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Wednesday evening, an apparent hip injury ending the 2021 Wimbledon finalist’s first Roland-Garros run in five years. Arnaldi (world No. 104) advances to his first Grand Slam semi-final, where he faces Flavio Cobolli on Friday in an all-Italian semi-final — the first at Roland-Garros in the Open Era, and the first all-Italian Grand Slam semi-final since 1976.
Matteo Berrettini, Roland-Garros 2026 | © B. Autissier / PsNewz
Matteo Berrettini, the 30-year-old Italian world No. 105 who had reached the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros for the first time in five years, retired with an apparent hip injury at 5-7, 2-5 down to compatriot Matteo Arnaldi on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Wednesday evening – sending Arnaldi into the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career, and confirming an all-Italian semi-final against 10th seed Flavio Cobolli on Friday.
Berrettini had taken a medical timeout at 2-1 in the second set after appearing to struggle with movement through the opening half of the contest. He returned to the court, played four more games, and walked to the chair umpire to announce that he could not continue. The 2021 Wimbledon finalist, who had spent five years away from Roland-Garros after his quarter-final run here in 2021, left the court to an ovation from the Chatrier crowd.
The injury history that ended the run is the same that had defined the four years separating his last Roland-Garros appearance from this one. Berrettini withdrew from the 2022 French Open with an injury, missed the 2023 edition with surgery, did not play in 2024, and pulled out of the 2025 tournament 24 hours before his first-round match.
A gift for Arnaldi
He was, by his own description in his press conferences, content to be back in the second week of a Grand Slam after years of trying. The path that had carried him this far – five-set surviving against Francisco Comesaña in the third round, a four-set dispatch of Juan Manuel Cerúndolo in the fourth – was the deepest of his post-injury career, and the second deepest of his Grand Slam career after his 2021 Wimbledon final run.
For Arnaldi, the result is the gift of a tournament that has been the most extraordinary of his career. The 25-year-old Ligurian, who had spent 17 hours and 42 minutes on court across his first four rounds – the longest path to a Grand Slam quarter-final since the ATP began recording match times in 1991 – needed only an hour and a half on Wednesday evening to advance to a Grand Slam semi-final he had not been expected to reach.
He will face Cobolli, who beat fourth seed Félix Auger-Aliassime earlier on Wednesday afternoon to reach his own first Grand Slam semi-final, on Friday. It is the first all-Italian semi-final at Roland-Garros in the Open Era, and the first all-Italian Grand Slam semi-final since the 1976 final of Roland-Garros itself, when Adriano Panatta beat Harold Solomon to win the tournament.
The men’s final on Sunday will contain an Italian. The first of the two who walked onto Chatrier on Wednesday evening will not be there to play it.
