PARIS (AP) — An Italian man will be in the French Open final and it’s not Jannik Sinner.
Not Lorenzo Musetti, either.
Flavio Cobolli will play fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi on Friday in the first Grand Slam semifinal for both players.
Cobolli beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 and Arnaldi advanced when Matteo Berrettini, yet another Italian, retired because of an injury to his left hip with Arnaldi leading 7-5, 5-2 on Wednesday.
Berrettini had received treatment during a medical timeout earlier in the second set.
“We have to be happy for Italian tennis,” Cobolli said.
While Sinner and Musetti were both in the last four a year ago, they were on opposite sides of the draw, meaning it will mark the first all-Italian men’s semifinal in Grand Slam history.
It’s been exactly 50 years since an Italian man won the French Open and 1976 champion Adriano Panatta was asked before the tournament to present the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy this year.
Cobolli comes from the same tennis club in Rome as Panatta, the Tennis Club Parioli.
Arnaldi said he first played Cobolli in the Italian under-14 championship: “We are good friends.”
Second-seeded Alexander Zverev and No. 26 Jakub Mensik will meet in the other semifinal.
While Italian tennis is booming, the 14th-ranked Cobolli, No. 104 Arnaldi and No. 105 Berrettini were not the Azzurri expected to get this far.
Top-ranked Sinner came to Paris on a 29-match winning streak and seemed destined to take the title after wasting three match points in the final against Carlos Alcaraz last year.
Musetti didn’t make it back to Roland Garros this year due to an injury.
But Cobolli, who at 24 is the same age as Sinner and Musetti, has dropped just two sets in five matches.
On a windy day inside Court Philippe-Chatrier, Auger-Aliassime whiffed on an overhead during the very first point of the match and also appeared disturbed when loud music was turned on accidentally over the stadium speakers during a key point later in the third set.
Still, the Canadian won the opening set — after which Cobolli left the court to regain his composure.
“I went to the toilet to think a bit, to change something,” Cobolli said. “I just said to myself to fight, because I felt like this is the chance of my life and I have to give everything.”
Cobolli was a talented soccer player and a member of Roma’s youth club until he decided to focus full-time on tennis. He was invited to join Paris Saint-Germain players when they brought soccer’s Champions League trophy onto the tennis court earlier in the week.
No matter the result of his semifinal, Cobolli will enter the top 10 of the rankings for the first time next week. He could even have a trophy of his own to bring home.
This, Cobolli said, is “the best week of my life.”
Nadal’s shower
Cobolli, who acknowledges that he’s superstitious, has been doing the same routine after every match.
“This week I’m a little bit more crazy,” he said, “I just go same restaurant, same menu, same shower.”
The shower he’s referring to in the French Open locker room was the one that record 14-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal used to use.
Cobolli once stepped into the shower and Nadal showed up and told him to get moving.
“He told me that it was his shower since 14 years,” Cobolli said with a laugh.
Auger-Aliassime down after loss
Auger-Aliassime, who at No. 4 was the highest-seeded player remaining in the top half of the draw, said he was “destroyed” by the defeat.
“I’m in a place right now with my tennis career that it’s tough,” he said. “I feel like I’m not the player I want to be.”
Doubles success, too
As the crowd started filing into Court Philippe-Chatrier for the Arnaldi-Berrettini match, the arena’s announcer started talking in Italian: “Buongiorno e benvenuto a tutti a Roland Garros” – “Hello and welcome everyone to Roland Garros.”
“Les Italiens,” as they are referred to in French, are doing well not just in singles.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori will play in the mixed doubles final on Thursday and Vavassori and Simone Bolelli have advanced to the semifinals in men’s doubles.
Italy’s tennis success has come in sharp contrast to the struggles of its national soccer team, which failed to qualify for a third straight World Cup. The Azzurri soccer team played a lowly friendly against Luxembourg on Wednesday.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
