Matteo Arnaldi: Head’s latest addition to an impressive generation of Italians
The impressive talent pool of Italian male tennis players – many of them Head ambassadors – has been expanded with the arrival in the world’s top 50 of Matteo Arnaldi.
The 22-year-old announced his presence to the world by reaching the fourth round of the 2023 US Open, beating the 16th seed Cameron Norrie in straight sets in the third round, which earned him a debut on the Arthur Ashe Stadium against the then world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
The run took him up to 47th in the ATP rankings, his first time in the top 50. It also earned him $284,000 in prize money, a useful sum given that he had just moved in with his Australian girlfriend in a prestigious apartment building in Monte Carlo.
Arnaldi plays the modern style of tennis: big baseline shots, built around a forehand that can do immense damage with very little backswing. But he also has great touch, using his excellent technique on the sliced backhand to play dropshots, and he is happy to show his volleying skills at the net. At 1.85m (6ft 1in), he is the perfect height for a tennis player.
Much as his US Open run was a surprise to those who did not know the likeable Italian with the dimpled chin and ready smile, the result didn’t come from nowhere. “It all happened very fast,” he says, which is true when you consider he was ranked 363 at the end of 2021 and started 2023 at 134, having played in the ATP NextGen Finals. But by the time he stepped out for his third Grand Slam tournament in New York, he had won Challenger titles at Tenerife, Murcia and Heilbronn, beaten Casper Ruud – then world No 4 – in Madrid, qualified for Wimbledon, and climbed to 61 in the rankings.
Arnaldi’s tennis education began on the Italian Riviera close to the French border. He began playing at a local club, not far from where the late Bob Brett, who coached Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic at the height of their careers, ran his academy.
It was there that he picked up a Head racquet at a very early age and has stuck with it ever since. “It suits me fine,” he says, “no need to change!” Today he endorses the Head Radical range.
His rise up the rankings in a particularly successful 2021 coincided with the emergence of Italy’s impressive new generation of players, including his Head colleagues Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti and Matteo Berrettini. Arnaldi clearly benefits from the competition and the solidarity: “It has been great,” he says. “We are all good friends. We help each other.”
Matteo Arnaldi is clearly aware of the great Italian tradition he is continuing. Asked whether he was aware of Nicola Pietrangeli, the great Italian of the 1950s and 60s who won singles, doubles and mixed titles at Roland-Garros and is now 90, he replies with eyes sparkling, “I have met him, we were able to talk for a while in Rome. People tell me he had a lovely one handed backhand.”
In playing style, Arnaldi resembles Italy’s great hero of the 1970s (and also a Roland-Garros champion) Adriano Panatta a little more than Pietrangeli. Although most comfortable from the back of the court, Arnaldi shares Panatta’s ability to serve and volley, a skill that enabled Panatta to become the only man to beat Bjorn Borg on the Paris clay (he did it twice).
Modern-day players need to play on all surfaces, but Arnaldi’s three wins at Wimbledon suggest he has no difficulty with that challenge. “I played well at Wimbledon as a junior so I got used to grass. It’s OK, although I need to work on my volley."
With Sinner, Musetti, Berrettini, Arnaldi and others, Italian tennis looks in very safe hands for the next decade.
WORDS BY RICHARD EVANS