Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi produced a sensational performance to take out sixth seed Andrey Rublev and reach the last 16 of the French Open on Friday.
The 23-year-old saved a set point in the opening set and went on to dominate his emotionally-charged opponent for a 7-6(8), 6-2, 6-4 victory to equal his best Grand Slam run.
Russian Rublev ranted and raged at himself as the match began to slip away, thumping his racket into his legs and kicking his courtside bench as another chance at a deep Grand Slam run came to a bitter end on the Parisian dust.
Arnaldi, who also reached the fourth round of last year’s US Open, was rock-solid throughout and barely put a foot wrong as he posted one the biggest wins of his career.
Rublev has reached 10 Grand Slam quarterfinals without ever going further but on this occasion even that proved beyond him as he could find no answer to Arnaldi’s accuracy and power.
He is the highest-seeded casualty so far in the men’s draw.
Arnaldi will play either Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas or China’s Zhang Zhizhen for a place in the quarter-finals.
