No Sinner, no problem as marathon man Arnaldi makes it three Italian men

 
PARIS: Matteo ⁠Arnaldi clawed his way back from the brink to become ​the third Italian man ​in the French Open quarter-finals on Monday, outlasting American Frances Tiafoe 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 3-6 7-6(3) 6-4 in a delirious late-night epic on court Suzanne-Lenglen.
With the crowd crackling under the Paris floodlights, the world number 104 stared elimination ⁠in the face when he trailed 4-1 in the fourth ⁠set, only to summon one final surge and prevail on his third match point after five hours and 26 minutes of ferocious shot-making and ‌lung-busting rallies.
'It’s a dream to be ​here. Today in ⁠the third set I was so tired,” said ​Arnaldi, the marathon man of ‌this year’s tournament after already needing more than five hours to win his third-round match.
'We ​live to play these matches, I always wanted to play like this at night at Roland Garros.
'It was not tennis, just something else, with everything we had. Someone had to win. Fortunately, it was ‌me tonight.”
Arnaldi has now spent 17 hours and 42 minutes ​on court in Paris - the most by any player reaching the ​quarter-finals ‌of ⁠a Grand Slam since the ATP Tour began recording match times in 1991.
The Italian produced moments of almost absurd defence to ​blunt the power of 19th seed Tiafoe, ⁠scrambling from corner ​to corner and somehow turning defence into attack in a match that repeatedly pushed both men beyond exhaustion.
Tiafoe eventually cracked, dumping a backhand into the net.
Arnaldi will next face compatriot Matteo ​Berrettini for a place in the semi-finals, both ​joining Flavio Cobolli in the last eight after their compatriot Jannik Sinner's surprise second-round exit.