Matteo Arnaldi pulled out of his French Open semifinal against Flavio Cobolli on Friday after a virus left him unable to play, handing Cobolli a place in his first Grand Slam final without hitting a ball. The withdrawal was announced just 25 minutes before the match was due to begin, turning what should have been one of the day’s main sporting events into a walkover.
Arnaldi said he had vomited multiple times on Thursday night and felt dizzy when he got up, and that he could not see a way through a match at that level in those conditions. “Every time I get up I feel dizzy and I don’t feel like the best,” he said in explaining why he stopped. “I’m pretty sure if I eat again I’m not going to feel good, so that was the right decision.”
The timing mattered because Cobolli, the 10th seed, had spent the week pushing deeper into the draw and was preparing to play for a place in the final. Instead, he was informed an hour before the semifinal that Arnaldi could not go on. Cobolli said he was so moved by the news that he almost cried, adding that he had been ready to play and was sad for his opponent even as he acknowledged the result that carried him through.
The last-minute change also sharpened the odd shape of the men’s draw in Paris. In the other semifinal, Alexander Zverev beat Jakub Mensik 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the French Open final for the second time and move into his fourth Grand Slam final on Sunday. The second seed and world No 3 has been chasing a first major title after losing the 2020 US Open final to Dominic Thiem, falling to Carlos Alcaraz at Roland Garros in 2024 and coming up short against Jannik Sinner in the 2025 Australian Open final.
That is why Cobolli’s passage felt both deserved and awkward. He has played well enough to be called a real factor at Roland Garros, but he will now contest a Grand Slam final without winning the semifinal on court, and against a rival who has been pushed to the brink before. Zverev said Cobolli had been “amazing” over the past two weeks and warned that the 24-year-old had beaten a string of excellent players. The final on Sunday now pairs a fresh finalist with a player who knows the weight of this stage better than most, and for Cobolli it begins with the strange fact that the biggest match of his career arrived because he could not play the one before it.
