Matteo Arnaldi has claimed that he changed into “65 shirts” during his marathon victory at the Delray Beach Open.
The No. 4 seed took on American teenager Learner Tien in the round of 16 and needed almost three hours to win.
Afterwards, Arnaldi made a hilarious confession about how brutal and “sweaty” the conditions were.
As one of the top seeds in Delray Beach, Arnaldi received a bye directly into the second round. But he was made to work in his opening match.
The Italian came up against Tien, the 19-year-old who announced himself at the recent Australian Open by beating Daniil Medvedev. Tien already had a match under his belt, beating Adam Walton in the first round, and he pushed Arnaldi.
The fourth seed raced into a 4-1 double-break lead in the first set before Tien drew level, but Arnaldi still took it in a tiebreak. The American forced a decider and broke early on, even serving for the match.
But Arnaldi kept himself alive and broke back before storming through the final set tiebreak to win 7-6(4) 4-6 7-6(1). The 23-year-old needed two hours and 49 minutes to get the job done in the humidity.
Afterwards, he explained just how difficult it was to grind out the win. “It was very tough, he’s playing very good and started the year amazing, today showed what he is capable of,” Arnaldi told the crowd.
“I’m really happy that I won this match. It was very tight, the conditions are tough. I mean, I was sweating like crazy, I changed 65 t-shirts!”
As well as battling Tien and the heat, the world No. 38 also had to take on the American crowd, who were pulling for his opponent. But he didn’t mind.
Arnaldi added: “Even if it wasn’t for me, I appreciate it. it was nice to play in front of this crowd, so thanks for coming. It’s never easy to play with a boy – because he’s still a teenager – from the United States.
“I’m really happy. I like to play in these situations, I try to find my way. It wasn’t easy, I was 5-4 down and he was serving. I’m really proud of it.”
It won’t get any easier as Arnaldi will now face another American, Brandon Nakashima. The 23-year-old is looking forward to a battle with one of his friends.
“Brandon is a good friend, we played doubles together in Dallas so we know each other very well,” he said.
“I don’t think we played each other before? I hope it’s going to be a good match. I hope it’s going to be the same crowd as today and to be a match like today.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk