Matteo Arnaldi is an Italian professional tennis player who was born on February 22, 2001, in Sanremo, Italy. Growing up in a sporting household, with his father being a keen swimmer, Matteo was always deeply linked with sports from a young age.
As tends to be the case for upcoming talents, Arnaldi made use of the ITF and Challenger tours in order to gain experience on the world stage before making the leap to the main ATP circuit. His hard work had paid off by 2022, as he was gifted a wildcard entry into the Italian Open in Rome, meaning he was granted his ATP main draw debut against none other than Grand Slam champion Marin Cilic.
The points he accumulated here, as well as those he had won from the rest of his good performances on the ATP Challenger Tour that season, were enough to see him qualify for the season-ending Next Gen ATP Finals. This progress set him in good stead to carry on the momentum into the next season, with his hitting the ground running.
At the 2023 Barcelona Open, he got his first ATP main draw win against home favorite Jaume Munar before qualifying for the Madrid Open the following week. Wins against Benoit Paire and Casper Ruud saw him progress to the third round, where his luck was up when Munar got revenge for the week prior.
This run of good form saw him get the chance to battle it out on the Grand Slam stage for the first time in his career at Roland Garros. Winning his first appearance at that level, his run came crashing down in four sets to Denis Shapovalov.
His progress did not stop there, with the Italian making his first ATP semifinal at the Croatia Open in Umag in July before going on to the American swing. This saw him achieve his then-best-ever Grand Slam performance, getting to the fourth round of the US Open before losing to number-one seed Carlos Alcaraz.
In 2024, he managed to break into the Top 35, and remains to be one of the more talented players on the ATP Tour.
