Italians Cobolli, Arnaldi advance to French Open semifinals - ESPN

PARIS — An Italian man will be in the French Open final, and it's not Jannik Sinner.

Not Lorenzo Musetti, either.

Flavio Cobolli will play fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi on Friday in the first Grand Slam semifinal for both players.

Tenth-seeded Cobolli beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday, and Arnaldi advanced when Matteo Berrettini, yet another Italian, retired because of an injury to his left hip with Arnaldi leading 7-5, 5-2.

Berrettini had received treatment during a medical timeout earlier in the second set.

«We have to be happy for Italian tennis,» Cobolli said.

While Sinner and Musetti were both in the last four a year ago, they were on opposite sides of the draw, and this will mark the first all-Italian men's semifinal in Grand Slam history.

It's been exactly 50 years since an Italian man won the French Open, and 1976 champion Adriano Panatta was asked before the tournament to present the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy this year.

Cobolli comes from the same tennis club in Rome as Panatta, the Tennis Club Parioli.

Second-seeded Alexander Zverev and No. 26 Jakub Mensik will meet in the other semifinal.

While Italian tennis is booming, 14th-ranked Cobolli, No. 104 Arnaldi and No. 105 Berrettini were not the Azzurri expected to get this far.

Top-ranked Sinner came to Paris on a 29-match winning streak and seemed destined to take the title after wasting three match points in the final against Carlos Alcaraz last year.

Musetti didn't make it back to Roland Garros this year due to an injury.

But Cobolli, who at 24 is the same age as Sinner and Musetti, has dropped just two sets in five matches.

On a windy day inside Court Philippe Chatrier, Auger-Aliassime whiffed on an overhead during the very