{"id":656638,"date":"2026-05-08T19:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/656638\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T19:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:49:14","slug":"first-mens-second-round-match-first-upset-de-minaur-defeated-by-arnaldi-jodar-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/656638\/","title":{"rendered":"First men\u2019s second-round match, first upset: De Minaur defeated by Arnaldi, Jodar next"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first second-round match in Rome produced the first upset. Matteo Arnaldi, the Sanremo-born wild card, beat eighth seed Alex de Minaur 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4<\/a> in two hours and 56 minutes on Friday at the Foro Italico, sending the Australian out of the tournament and earning himself a third-round meeting with Rafael Jodar.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For Arnaldi it is a significant result on multiple counts. It is his sixth career win over a top-10 player, and his first since he beat Novak Djokovic in Madrid a year ago. It is his seventh consecutive victory across Cagliari \u2013 where he won the Challenger 175 title on Wednesday \u2013 and Rome. And it returns him, virtually, inside the world\u2019s top 100, after a foot injury that had dragged him down to No. 106 and forced him into Rome on a wild card.<\/p>\n

Arnaldi was visibly emotional in his post-match interview with Sky Sport Italia. \u201cI\u2019m happy. If two months ago you\u2019d told me I\u2019d win a match like this, I wouldn\u2019t have believed it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve worked hard. I\u2019m not at 100% yet, but I\u2019m finding myself again. If I play the way I know I can, I can beat strong players like Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the foot injury<\/p>\n

It is, on the evidence of his recent run, the win he needed. Arnaldi has spent the spring rebuilding from the foot injury, working under new coach Fabio Colangelo \u2013 formerly of Lorenzo Sonego\u2019s team \u2013 who will travel with him to Roland-Garros. The Cagliari title was the first concrete sign that the work was paying off. Beating a top-10 player on a centre court in Rome, in front of a partisan home crowd, is a different order of evidence.<\/p>\n

The third round will bring a less predictable challenge. Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old Spaniard who reached the Madrid quarter-finals last week<\/a>, opened his Rome campaign earlier on Friday with a 7-6, 6-4<\/a> win over Nuno Borges and is now seeded for the first time in a Masters 1000 main draw. Asked about Arnaldi after his own match, Jodar was unsentimental.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t seen him play a lot,\u201d Jodar said. \u201cBut everyone here is really good. If he has won already two matches, it\u2019s because of something. He\u2019s a great player, so I have to recover well and try to get ready for that match, because it\u2019s going to be very tough.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

The two have not met before. Jodar is the higher-ranked player and, on current form, the favourite. But Arnaldi will have the home crowd that, by his own account today, helped carry him through the third set against De Minaur \u2013 and a streak of seven straight wins behind him. The first upset of the round may not be the last.<\/p>\n

Rome Masters 1000\u2019s second round<\/p>\n

Sinner (1) vs Ofner \u2014 scheduled
Popyrin vs Mensik (26) \u2014 scheduled
Tiafoe (20) vs Buse \u2014 scheduled
Pellegrino (Q) vs Fils (15) \u2014 scheduled
Rublev (12) vs Kecmanovic \u2014 scheduled
Garin (Q) vs Davidovich Fokina (21) \u2014 scheduled
Nakashima (30) vs Bautista Agut \u2014 scheduled
Basilashvili (Q) vs Shelton (5) \u2014 scheduled
Auger-Aliassime (4) vs Navone \u2014 scheduled
Medjedovic vs Fonseca (27) \u2014 scheduled
Etcheverry (24) vs Bellucci \u2014 scheduled
Cilic vs Landaluce (LL) \u2014 scheduled
Cobolli (10) vs Atmane \u2014 scheduled
Tirante vs Norrie (17) \u2014 scheduled
Moutet (28) vs Llamas Ruiz (Q) \u2014 scheduled
Machac vs Medvedev (7) \u2014 scheduled
Musetti (8) vs Mpetshi Perricard \u2014 scheduled
Cerundolo F.(25) \u2013 Tabilo 6-0, 6-2
Ruud (23) d. Svajda 6-1, 6-3
Lehecka (11) d. Struff 7-6, 6-3
Khachanov (13) vs Shevchenko 6-4, 6-4 \u2014 in progress
Van de Zandschulp d. Kovacevic (LL) 2-6, 6-2, 7-6
Humbert (31) vs Kopriva
Prizmic (Q) vs Djokovic (3)
Arnaldi (WC) d. De Minaur (6) 4-6, 7-6, 6-4
Jodar (32) d. Borges 7-6, 6-4
Tien (19) d. Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1
Bublik (9) d. Baez 6-1, 6-2
Paul (16) d. Vukic 6-4, 6-2
Hanfmann vs Darderi (18) \u2014 scheduled
Griekspoor (29) vs Blockx \u2014 scheduled
Zverev (2) d. Altmaier 7-5, 6-3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first second-round match in Rome produced the first upset. Matteo Arnaldi, the Sanremo-born wild card, beat eighth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-656638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}