He tried Matthew Arnaldi to surprise Frances Tiafoe in this first round of the Wimbledon tournament. On the lawns of Church Road, the Ligurian managed to play the decisive points of the first two sets better, moving forward 7-6 (5) 6-2. From the third set, however, the world no.29 increased his level, especially on serve, and Arnaldi paid dearly for the usual foul performance of his forehand and also a bit of the serve. Conclusion: 6-7 (5) 2-6 6-1 6-3 6-3 in 3 hours and 12 minutes of play. It will then be up to the American player to face the Croatian in the second round Borna Coric.
In the first set the serves are the masters, until the ninth game. A double fault and some trivial errors cost Matteo the break, but he is good at returning the favor in the next game, with a backhand passing shot to be highlighted. In the tie-break, the Italian player runs away on 4-1, keeping the American at bay from the baseline. With the score at 7-5, the fraction is tinged with the tricolor.
In the second set the start does not smile for Alessandro Petrone’s pupil. The forehand is still too loose and Tiafoe takes advantage of it to go up 2-0. The American, however, goes into a prolonged break in an unexpected way, playing the remaining games of this fraction decidedly poorly. Arnaldi collects and closes at 6-2.
In the third set another version of Tiafoe is seen. The performance at bat increases greatly and Matteo no longer finds a way to start the exchange as he wants. This resulted in two breaks in the fourth and sixth game, in which the American’s early responses cut the blue’s legs short. The partial ends with a score of 6-1.
In the quarto set the crux of the fraction and probably also of the confrontation is the sixth game. Matteo creates a “break” chance that he hasn’t seen since the second set, but he doesn’t know how to exploit it. From there Tiafoe is overwhelming, breaking the Italian’s serve in the seventh and ninth games (6-3).
In the quinto set the world no.35 tries to keep up with his opponent, but in the final stretch the greater consistency of the American’s shots prevails. Too many inaccuracies for Arnaldi, who gives up serve in the eighth game. Tiafoe doesn’t take any time and closes at 6-3.
Reading the statistics, the figure of 15 aces scored by the blue compared to 12 by his opponent is notable. However, the 63% of first serve points won compared to the ATP No. 29’s 80% made a big difference.
