The fighting spirit was there, but the stability was lacking and the visor was regularly incorrectly adjusted by the Italian Matteo Arnaldi. He had a difficult time with Alexandre Müller from France throughout the match. At Roland Garros this year, both players met in the second round and Arnaldi won in straight sets (6-4, 6-1, 6-3). He then managed to beat Andrey Rublev in straight sets and was only stopped in the fourth round by Tsitsipas, of which he managed to win another set. The expectation was that Arnaldi, who reached the semi-finals last year, would go far on the clay of Umag. But nothing turned out to be further from the truth. He didn’t even win a single set and was eliminated. He always had to fight back in the match because he fell behind time and time again. Yet, through hard work in the first set, he even managed to reach set point at 8-7 in the tiebreak, but Müller eventually won with 10-8. In the next set he managed to survive a break point several times, but at 4-4 Müller managed to break and ultimately Arnaldi lost the set ( 6-4) and the match. A loss for Arnaldi and a loss for the tournament, but Alexandre was the rightful winner.
YOU CAN SEE THE FULL PICTURES AND SLIDE SHOW. CLICK ON ANY PHOTO AND THE PICTURES ARE SHOWN AT FULL SIZE!
