Le Roland-Garros qu’est en train de réaliser Matteo Arnaldi est absolument monumental. Réalisant le match le plus abouti de sa jeune carrière, il a fait tomber l’un des principaux outsiders de ce Roland-Garros : Andrey Rublev, 6e mondial et titré à Madrid.
Face à un Rublev retombant plus que jamais dans ses travers, le Transalpin a réalisé le match parfait. À seulement 23 ans, le niveau de tennis proposé par Arnaldi est absolument dingue. Étouffant son adversaire jusqu’au bout, il a réussi à frustrer un Rublev toujours plus nerveux. Claquant des coups gagnants de tous les côtés (47 coups gagnants, 19 fautes directes, 13 aces, 6 breaks réussis), c’est en toute logique qu’il rejoint la deuxième semaine à Paris.
Décidément, l’Italie possède une cuvée impressionnante. Entre un Jannik Sinner inarrêtable, un Lorenzo Musetti plus que prometteur et désormais un Matteo Arnaldi en pleine éclosion, les Italiens ont de quoi voir venir et les Français en savent quelque chose (Monfils battu par Musetti, Gasquet éliminé par Sinner, Fils et Muller stoppés par Arnaldi) !
Pour une place en quarts de finale, le 35e mondial pourrait retrouver Stefanos Tsitsipas, à moins que Zhizhen Zhang ne vienne le surprendre.
Face à un Rublev retombant plus que jamais dans ses travers, le Transalpin a réalisé le match parfait. À seulement 23 ans, le niveau de tennis proposé par Arnaldi est absolument dingue. Étouffant son adversaire jusqu’au bout, il a réussi à frustrer un Rublev toujours plus nerveux. Claquant des coups gagnants de tous les côtés (47 coups gagnants, 19 fautes directes, 13 aces, 6 breaks réussis), c’est en toute logique qu’il rejoint la deuxième semaine à Paris.
Décidément, l’Italie possède une cuvée impressionnante. Entre un Jannik Sinner inarrêtable, un Lorenzo Musetti plus que prometteur et désormais un Matteo Arnaldi en pleine éclosion, les Italiens ont de quoi voir venir et les Français en savent quelque chose (Monfils battu par Musetti, Gasquet éliminé par Sinner, Fils et Muller stoppés par Arnaldi) !
Pour une place en quarts de finale, le 35e mondial pourrait retrouver Stefanos Tsitsipas, à moins que Zhizhen Zhang ne vienne le surprendre.
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SportTranscription
00:00 Do you consider, you know, with this victory, all victories in your career, is it one of the best or the best of your career?
00:12 Like I said on court, I think it's the best in the slams for sure. I played really good the whole match. It's not easy to play best of five like with this continuity that I did, so I'm very happy for that.
00:26 I don't know if it's the best match that I ever played, but for sure it's one of the best I can say. I would say the best in the slams.
00:35 Congrats. What is the secret of Italian tennis? I know you've probably been asked this many times before.
00:49 So many times. The answer is always the same. What do you want me to say? It's always that. There is an answer. I think, like we always say, we are good friends, all of us.
01:05 We are playing good. It's good for the Italian tennis. After the Davis Cup we got a lot of energy, a lot of people watching more tennis in Italy.
01:16 You see your friend winning some good matches and you try to do the same. You want to achieve the same and I think that's what is pushing us to do the same things.
01:31 So that's nothing to do with the food. Do you like pasta and pizza? Yeah, so maybe that.
01:46 Can you talk about your relationship with Elisabetta? You were talking just after your match that you've known her for a long time. You have the same age. Is she your friend? Did you grow up with her?
02:02 I think it's a similar question to what you asked now. Elisabetta has the same age as me and like Jannick, like Lorenzo, like Luca, like Francesco, I can't say them all.
02:16 But we know each other since we were 11, 12. We were playing the same tournaments. We were playing the national championship. We played some team competition together.
02:26 So it's good to see her winning before me for sure and it's good to see everyone winning. It's fun but it's also nice to have all of these Italians here that are walking around the site.
02:42 So I think it's good for all of us and for all the Italians and for the people that are watching tennis that we are achieving all of this that we are doing.
02:52 You said last week that you have a good strategy against Andrei. Can you elaborate a bit on your strategy?
03:08 I think I had a good tactic and it worked. That's a good thing. I could do it for the whole match.
03:17 Like I said at the last press conference that I did, the point was to not play in the rhythm with him because he's faster than me for sure.
03:30 So I tried to do a lot of variation to try to lead the rally and I think I did it pretty well.
03:38 One thing that I did very well today was the serve. I served really well also in the important moments.
03:43 So that's what helped a lot also at the end. When I was serving 5-4 I was pretty nervous but I served really good.
03:53 So that's what I think did the difference today.
03:57 Questions in Italian. Please raise your hand.
04:00 You said yesterday that you would play against Rublev and maybe win. I imagine that was the most difficult moment.
04:15 That first set and that set point. If you lose that set you mess up everything.
04:20 Did you get surprised by the fact that he was so fast? He was very nervous from the first game.
04:26 The first set was very important. I was playing very well. I think we were both playing very well in the first set.
04:35 It was in difficult conditions. We started with the roof and then we continued with the roof.
04:41 It wasn't easy to play. The balls were getting very big compared to the other matches.
04:46 The first set made the difference. If you lose a set like that, especially from my point of view,
04:52 and you play against a player who is stronger in terms of ranking, it wasn't easy.
04:58 But I played very well in the important moments, also in the tie-break.
05:03 I continued from there. I didn't have a callus like during the match. I think that was the key today.
05:14 Hi Matteo. Congratulations. You were very young in 2021.
05:18 But for your own admission...
05:20 Even now.
05:21 Even now. Let's say you were younger.
05:24 For your own admission, that was a year of crisis.
05:29 You put your certainties into question.
05:34 How did you get out of that? What was the motivation that brought you here?
05:40 You started winning on the ATP a year ago.
05:45 If we have to call these wins, the wins against Arnaldi.
05:51 Great running, great defence, great defence, but also the ability to counter attack.
05:56 That reminds me of a certain player who is still number one in the world.
06:00 I said that 2021 was the most difficult year.
06:06 It was a year of transition. I changed a lot in my team, at home.
06:12 I had to make these decisions, which were the most difficult in my life.
06:18 From there I started winning, playing well. It went well.
06:24 I think that was the first year, the year of Arnaldi's birth.
06:32 From there I started to create the player I am now.
06:37 I am still trying to improve him.
06:40 I am still trying to discover what kind of player I will be.
06:43 But as you said, my tennis has already started to get to know him.
06:48 I move very well, I try to stay there.
06:51 Today I think I did perfectly what I had planned.
06:56 What I know how to do well.
06:58 He has been in trouble a lot, especially since the beginning.
07:02 Matteo, congratulations on the win.
07:05 Let's say that the service was a key weapon, because you scored 13 aces.
07:09 It doesn't happen often.
07:11 And also the fact that you broke the rhythm in the second half with some back-and-forth shots.
07:20 Yes, as I said, that was the key today.
07:23 Playing with rhythm with him was not the key to winning.
07:27 I served very well.
07:29 As I said before, in the important moments I was tense, as is normal.
07:35 I was playing very well and the service helped me a lot.
07:38 I am very happy.
07:40 I still can't put it into practice all the games.
07:43 But today was an important game and the service responded well.
07:47 I am happy from that point of view.
07:49 I already said that I wanted to do a lot of things today.
07:57 I had the intention to do it with my head.
07:59 I managed to do it for the most part of the match.
08:02 I am happy about that.
08:04 When you play with an opponent who starts to break the racket,
08:09 then he pulls it on his knee, he grabs it with a slap.
08:12 What do you do?
08:13 Do you try not to look at him or do you think that maybe he is mad?
08:18 What is your attitude?
08:20 You all know him.
08:22 He does it in almost every match.
08:25 I don't pay much attention to it, unless it is not a loud thing.
08:30 You can hear him shouting.
08:32 But it gives me confidence.
08:36 It means that I am making it difficult.
08:38 It means that what I wanted to do is succeeding.
08:40 From a point of view, it helps me to be a little more charged.
08:47 Maybe I can put a little more energy into the points that will come after doing certain things.
08:53 He does it, but from the point after it he is ready.
08:57 He always does it.
08:59 It is his attitude on the pitch.
09:01 I don't see it as a strange thing compared to how it could be if other players did it.
09:06 Do you break the racket?
09:08 With the back foot?
09:10 Go ahead.
09:12 I am quite calm on the pitch.
09:17 There were periods when I was less calm.
09:21 There were periods of growth when I still had to find my personality on the pitch.
09:25 It happened when I was a kid that I broke someone's racket.
09:29 I was always quite...
09:31 I was holding the racket higher than the other one.
09:34 I was sorry for it right after.
09:36 I didn't want to break it.
09:38 At the moment, I was a bit nervous, but I held on.
09:43 I remember the first time I broke the racket.
09:45 It was quite sad.
09:47 Matteo, tennis is moving more and more.
09:52 Before, it was a sport for men only.
09:54 Now it has become a group sport because you have a team that follows you and helps you.
09:59 You exchange a lot of things when you are on the pitch.
10:04 How important is the work of the team and what does it help you the most?
10:08 In general, if I am the player I am today, it is thanks to them.
10:13 You work a lot on the pitch.
10:15 It depends on you on the pitch, but you do things as part of training and preparation.
10:20 If my qualities are stamina and speed, it is thanks to the coach.
10:25 If we prepared the game well and I was able to serve well, it is thanks to the coach.
10:31 As you said, we are a team.
10:34 In tennis, it is growing even more.
10:36 Especially when they put the coach on the pitch, you can talk even more.
10:40 You can exchange a few words with your coach and with your team in general.
10:45 It is becoming a sport where you can confront yourself during the game.
10:51 I think this helps a lot of players to make the right decisions.
10:56 Sometimes you don't see what is happening on the pitch compared to what you see from the outside.
11:03 This helps you too.
11:05 Hi, thank you. First of all, congratulations from me too.
11:09 I wanted to ask you this.
11:10 It is true that you are all friends and you grew up together.
11:13 But there is one thing that has changed in my opinion.
11:17 Today, you were both not the ones who should win.
11:23 You were the weaker ones on paper.
11:27 But more and more often it happens that you manage to overturn the odds.
11:32 You never start defeated.
11:35 Once, we Italians always started a little defeated.
11:39 It was more difficult to overturn the odds, it was more difficult to fight.
11:43 This has changed in women and men.
11:47 You asked yourself why.
11:49 I don't know the answer.
11:51 Honestly, as I said before, if we see our friends get good results,
11:59 and if the first one to beat a certain type of player is Ente,
12:04 I can beat him too, I can play against him too.
12:07 This is the only thing I can answer.
12:13 I hope we can do these upsets every day.
12:19 The only thing I can say is that.
12:23 If we see a person we train with every day, who beats a certain type of player,
12:29 I can't say I can do it too, but I can come on the pitch with a different idea.
12:34 [MUSIC PLAYING]