{"id":106173,"date":"2026-06-05T13:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=106173"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:07:12","slug":"french-open-disaster-as-matteo-arnaldi-withdraws-before-semifinal-showdown-against-flavio-cobolli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/06\/05\/french-open-disaster-as-matteo-arnaldi-withdraws-before-semifinal-showdown-against-flavio-cobolli\/","title":{"rendered":"French Open Disaster as Matteo Arnaldi Withdraws Before Semifinal Showdown Against Flavio Cobolli"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just minutes before the start of the second men\u2019s semifinal, Italian Matteo Arnaldi<\/a> has been forced to withdraw from his semifinal<\/a> match against fellow Italian Flavio Cobolli due to a viral illness.<\/p>\n

In one of the highest stakes pre-match withdrawals in recent tennis memory, Arnaldi was unable to take the court for the semifinal, sending Cobolli through to his first-ever Major final.<\/p>\n

Matteo Arnaldi Withdraws From French Open Semifinal<\/h2>\n

Ranked No. 104 in the world entering the tournament, Arnaldi had spent almost 20 hours on court across his five matches. His remarkable run included a match-of-the-tournament contender against American Frances Tiafoe in the fourth round, as well as another grueling five-set battle against Raphael Collignon.<\/p>\n

Announcing that he would not take to the court for the semifinal, Arnaldi said in a press conference<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a fever too during the day. I can\u2019t move, I can\u2019t eat, I can\u2019t drink. There was no way I would be able to play. I feel sorry for all the fans.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The French Open announced that all spectators holding tickets for the second men\u2019s semifinal would receive a full refund, as the tournament, already affected by several high-profile withdrawals and early exits, suffered another significant blow with a semifinal not being played.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Although the nature of the illness has not yet been revealed, there had been concerns that the immense amount of time Arnaldi spent on court throughout the fortnight could take a physical toll. Unfortunately, he will now be unable to complete what had been one of the most inspiring runs of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Cobolli Through to First Slam Final<\/h3>\n

While this is not the way Cobolli would have wanted to reach his first Slam final, his level throughout the tournament has been worthy of a deep run, especially given the volatile nature of the event so far.<\/p>\n

Cobolli will now face Alexander Zverev in the final<\/a>. The pair have already met twice this season, splitting those encounters one apiece, setting up a fascinating battle for the championship.<\/p>\n

Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just minutes before the start of the second men\u2019s semifinal, Italian Matteo Arnaldi has been forced to withdraw from his semifinal match against fellow Italian Flavio Cobolli due to a viral illness. In one of the highest stakes pre-match withdrawals in recent tennis memory, Arnaldi was unable to take the court for the semifinal, sending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5608,"featured_media":66899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,5,9],"tags":[43702,85,15670,17610],"class_list":["post-106173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","category-french-open","category-news","tag-2026-french-open","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-flavio-cobolli","tag-matteo-arnaldi"],"modified_by":"Zain Mustafa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106178,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106173\/revisions\/106178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}