Mar 6, 2025; Indian Wells, CA, USA; Matteo Arnaldi (ITA) hits a ball towards Aleksander Kovacevic (USA) in the BNP Paribas Open on the Indian Nicely Tennis Backyard. Necessary Credit score: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Photographs Matteo Arnaldi recorded a 6-3, 6-4 win over fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic in the second spherical of the Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday.
Arnaldi, of Italy, fired 5 aces and saved 4 of 5 break factors to win the match in 1 hour and 41 minutes.
Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion, has misplaced three consecutive matches. The Serbian fell to Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic in the Miami ultimate after which misplaced to Alejandro Tabilo of Chile in his Monte Carlo opener.
“He is my idol, he is all the time been,” Arnaldi mentioned of Djokovic. “I used to be simply glad that I might play him. I by no means performed him, simply practiced with him. To play him at a stage like this was already a victory for me. He is not at his greatest proper now, so I got here on courtroom to attempt to play my greatest tennis and win and it occurred, so proper now I do not even know what to say.”
Arnaldi took benefit of Djokovic’s 32 unforced errors.
“I used to be simply attempting to rally a bit in the beginning, attempting to make him (make) some errors,” Arnaldi mentioned. “Then as soon as it begins, you begin to really feel higher, the strain goes just a little bit away. He gave me just a little bit in just a few video games. For positive it helped me that I broke him right away so I used to be like, ‘Alright, that is an excellent begin’ after which after that, it was an escalation. I began to play higher and I feel it turned a fairly good match.”
Additionally on Saturday, sixth-seeded Alex de Minaur breezed to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Lorenzo Sonego of Italy. Sonego’s countryman, Tenth-seeded Lorenzo Musetti, loved higher fortune with a 7-6 (3), 6-2 win over Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina.
Seventeenth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas overcame a first-set stumble to notch a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany.
Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, who’s seeded twenty ninth, coasted to a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Kei Nishikori of Japan.
Nineteenth-seeded Tomas Machac and Twenty sixth-seeded Jiri Lehecka — each of the Czech Republic — and Thirty second-seeded Sebastian Baez of Argentina all fell in three units.
Nice Britain’s Jacob Fearnley posted a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Macha, fellow Brit Cameron Norrie seized a 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 win over Lehecka and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur secured a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Baez. Dzumhur will face Arnaldi in the following spherical.
–Discipline Stage Media
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