Latest / Bleacher Report / Frances Tiafoe & Matteo Arnaldi Have Epic 5-Set, 5-Hour Match | Roland-Garros 2026

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Frances Tiafoe & Matteo Arnaldi Have Epic 5-Set, 5-Hour Match | Roland-Garros 2026 · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The sprinklers are on behind me.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: There is not a soul in sight, and those two
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: men laid it.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: All out for our entertainment. Are you not entertained?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: John Isner, Sam Querry, Caroline Wolse, Niyaki, Sloan stevens Adam Lefko.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: You want to watch it again? I think we should
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: watch it again.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Is this tournament scripted to just have the maximum amount
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: of deciding sets and tie breaks as possible? This is
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: I'm exhausted and I didn't swing a racket.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Sam.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: I think everyone's exhausted. I mean the stadium is still
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: full of people listening to Arnaldi right now with the
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: post nat speech.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: I cannot believe what we just witnessed in this match.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: It was truly incredible. Let's get into the highlights. First set, Every.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Single set was incredibly close.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: First set on Naughty takes it in a first set tiebreak,
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: seven to four.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: In the buster.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: He gets up on Francis in the second set, and
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: what is bo do? Like he always says, he fights back,
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: takes the second set and a tiebreaker.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: He's fired up.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: AJ Devons is in the crowd watching it as well.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: Foe at this stage has all the momentum all the
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: After winning that second set tiebreaker, he wins the third set,
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: and he starts a four set off extremely well, and it.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Looks like he was in complete command.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Ye know. One of the best things about this match too,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: was the crowd. Tiafo is in command in that four set.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: The crowd then got behind Arnaldi, right, he wanted to
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: see a fifth set. And then this fourth set here
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: goes to a tiebreaker. Right, you think Tifos Navy going
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: to close it out, but it's Arnaldy digging deep, finding
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: that extra gear to take the four set in a breaker.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Then the crowd kind of switched back. Then the crowd
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: wanted Chioffa to win, and they'd go back and they
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: want Arnaldi to win. They switched a hand They excuse me,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: They exchanged a handful of breaks late in this fifth set.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: The momentum really switched every few minutes, it seemed like
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: late in this fifth set.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it absolutely did.
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  Speaker 3: Fo.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: This was this was one of those stages where Foe
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: got the.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Break back and forth we watch this point.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: This incredible appify Francis again trying.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: To get just talk about getting five hours into this match.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: It's absolutely incredible. Hats off to Big Bo.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: What an absolute warrior out there, but he does go
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: on to get broken at love that game. This is
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: to me the craziest point of the whole match right here,
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: This defense from Ronaldi is absolutely incredible.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Gosh, and it ends with that just so tough for
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Big Bow.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: You see how much it means or Anadi, how exhausted
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Big Bow was matches over right there with big serve.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: You gotta remember Bo was up in that four set
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: for to one, serving forty fifteen.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then he also served for the match he
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: did in.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: That four set it's five to four as well, the
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: thirty first five setter of the tournament. Arnaldi into his
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: first major quarterfinal of his career. Just to put into
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: perspective that match on shat Trier, when we had Center
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: and Alcarez, that was five hours and twenty nine minutes.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: This was five hours and twenty six minutes. We are
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: guaranteed being an Italian into the semifinals. Three of them
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: still left with Arnaldi, Barrettini and Caboli. And this is
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the first time no American man or woman has reached
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: the quarterfinals of Roland Garros since twenty seventeen. Afterwards, Arnaldi
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: trying to catch his breath. Wow, one of the matches
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: of our lives.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: I don't know I'm standing here, to be honest, I
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: played so much in this tournament. I haven't played in
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: solo like this year, I haven't played much. I was
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: injured for the food So I don't know. I just
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: it's a dream, to be honest, to be here because
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: it's for first match, was for our second free and
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: alf thirty five hours today five and a half, and
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: I don't know, like today in the third.
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: Set, I was so tired. But you know, we leave
• 3:54
  Speaker 6: to play these matches.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: I always dream to play, you know, I'm matching us
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: at night like this, these battles against someone like Francis,
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: Like I think at one point it wasn't tennis, it
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: was just something else.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: You you were just playing with everything you had. You know,
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: the there had to be a winner, and fortunately I
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: was here. It was me tonight. But you know, the
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: this this is definitely the best match I ever played.
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: And I mean also like the crowd and every understayed here.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: It's it's amazing. It's like one and a and I
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: am so I mean, so many things that it's a
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: real So I'm just you know, I'm just happy that
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: I'm standing here.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: The clock said, want await, the score said there was
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: a winner. But everyone here and everyone there know that
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: the players left something behind. This is sometimes bigger than
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: a sport. It's a test of will you get taken
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: to the darkness and you see who emerges? What did
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: those guys just go through? Explain to everyone at home
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: that's never experienced that. Not only have you guys experienced that?
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: What is left in their tank?
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Look for Tiafo. He's walking in the locker room right now, devastated.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: Right he served for the match, He had that big
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: lead in the fourth set. That fifth set was back
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: and forth. Everyone's heart goes out for him, right. That
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: was a tremendous battle out there. We saw him dive
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: on the ground late in the fifth set. For Arnaldi.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: He just mentioned he's gone five sets multiple times already
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: in this tournament. He's got to come back and play
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: another match. But that is one of those matches that
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: you always remember as a player. The people in the crowd,
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: that's one next week, you know, the kids at school,
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: I was wrong, girls, I was at that Tiafo or
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Naldi match that went to one fifteen in the morning.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: He was epic, and so it's a bummer. There's got
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: to be a winner. There's got to be a loser
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: tonight it was Arnaldi, but Big Folk should hold his
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: head high. That effort was incredible from him.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Arnaudi said it best. He said, at some point
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: it became more than a tennis match out there. I mean,
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: you might go throughout the course of year, and you might,
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: if you're lucky, you played two matches like that where
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: you're just getting broiled in this unbelievable contest with your opponent.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: You're just battling back and forth, back and forth. It's
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: exactly what they did out there today. It was truly incredible.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: And I guess you could just hope that you both
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: play your absolute best, you know, when it gets to
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: that three four hour, five hour mark, and they both did.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: It was truly incredible drama out there.
• 6:28
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, this is what you practiced for, right
• 6:30
  Speaker 7: when nobody else wants to be out there. These are
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: the moments to plan a big stadium in a big moment,
• 6:36
  Speaker 7: and playing the most important tournament of the year one
• 6:40
  Speaker 7: of them, you know, and then it's just too bad
• 6:43
  Speaker 7: that there had to be a loser today because they
• 6:45
  Speaker 7: both deserve to win. It was such high level and
• 6:48
  Speaker 7: it was going back and forth as you guys were saying,
• 6:51
  Speaker 7: and I mean, it's too bad that Prances didn't go
• 6:54
  Speaker 7: through because I thought he deserved that. They're in the
• 6:56
  Speaker 7: fourth set.
• 6:57
  Speaker 8: Definitely, Obviously this is heartbreak. This is something like he
• 7:01
  Speaker 8: won't sleep tonight and we'll both probably neither of them
• 7:03
  Speaker 8: will sleep tonight.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: One we'll just have.
• 7:05
  Speaker 8: So much adrenaline and energy, and I just it's something
• 7:08
  Speaker 8: we've all dealt with. We've all been there where we
• 7:10
  Speaker 8: just couldn't like just so close but yet so far away,
• 7:13
  Speaker 8: and I think for Francis to take all the positives
• 7:15
  Speaker 8: away from here with you know, working with Markobacks now,
• 7:18
  Speaker 8: his attitude was totally different, Like he was scrambling, We
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: saw him on the floor, all of the things that
• 7:23
  Speaker 8: he was trying to do to just keep himself in
• 7:25
  Speaker 8: the match. And unfortunately he couldn't win tonight. But I
• 7:28
  Speaker 8: think he's made a lot of improvements. I think he'd
• 7:30
  Speaker 8: be really proud of that.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: You learn the test of a man, you learn what
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: they're capable of. We saw them taken to the absolute edge,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: and they responded time after time. Everyone in attendance couldn't leave. Joe, Kim,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Noah was there the entire time. AJ depends on there.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: The end of higher time, absolutely glueden. We were here,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: living and dying with every single point five hours and
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: twenty six minutes.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: I'll say this, if is there any doubt that tennis
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: players are the greatest athletes in the world. I mean,
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: I think if this terman doesn't prove it, then nothing will.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: In my mind, it's just incredible.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: Agree.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Look, Francis Tianfo went five sets with her cops, then
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: he went five sets with Faria, and they went five
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: sets with Hernaldi I mean. And Shasley spent fourteen hours
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: on the court in the last five days