Matteo Arnaldi (Image Credit: FITP - Twitter)
Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman will take on local favourite Matteo Arnaldi in the opening round of the Italian Open
Matteo Arnaldi is coming into this tournament following an impressive campaign at the Madrid Open. He raised some eyebrows after pulling off a major upset against third seed Casper Ruud in the second round of the Madrid Masters. Arnaldi made it to the main draw of that ATP 1000 event after winning two rounds of qualifying and progressed till the Round of 32.
He defeated Benoit Paire in the Round of 128 and followed it up with an incredible 6-3, 6-4 win against the World No.3 Casper Ruud. The victory was certainly not a fluke and Arnaldi has been in good touch having won the Murcia Open earlier this month.
There is no doubt that Arnaldi is coming to Italy high on confidence. He has already shown that he can defeat anyone on his day. It remains to be seen if he can replicate his form from the Madrid Open and cause more upsets.
Schwartzman has had a pretty disappointing season so far and is nowhere near his best form. It has been a drastic decline from 2022 and the Argentine has suffered early exits from most of the tournaments he has played in.
He is coming into this tournament following two consecutive first-round exits from the Madrid Open and a Challenger event in Cagliari. It’s high time that Schwartzman gets himself together and works on getting some much-needed consistency. He would be hoping to do well at the Italian Open and set a positive tone for the rest of the season.
Details:
Date – Wednesday, 10th May
Court Type – Clay outdoor surface
Telecast – Tennis Channel
Start Time – To be Announced
Location – Foro Italico
Match details – Round of 128 match
Arnaldi and Schwartzman have never played each other before on the AT tour. This is the first professional head-to-head clash between the two players. There is hardly anything to separate between the two players in terms of rankings. While Arnaldi has form in his favour, Schwartzman is relatively more experienced. It is a tough match to call as an intense encounter is on the cards. We are predicting a hard-fought win in three sets for Matteo Arnaldi.
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