Flavio Cobolli admitted he was almost in tears after learning close friend Matteo Arnaldi was pulling out of their French Open semi-final through illness.
Tenth seed Cobolli will take on title favourite Alexander Zverev in his first grand slam final on Sunday but happiness at his achievement was dwarfed by sadness for his fellow Italian.
“It’s tough for me to speak now,” said Cobolli. “When he came to me almost one hour ago, I almost cried. It’s something that you don’t expect at all. I was ready to play this match. When he came, I was completely sad for him.
“Of course, I’m really happy for the result that I reached this week. Now I’m sad and happy at the same time.”
Arnaldi’s withdrawal due to a stomach virus was announced only around 25 minutes before the pair were due to walk out on Court Philippe Chatrier for the one-match night session.
Ticket-holders will be refunded, although Cobolli did take to the court for a practice session.
Arnaldi was the most unexpected of the semi-finalists being ranked outside the top 100, while he had spent a record 19 hours and 42 minutes in reaching the last four.
Speaking at a press conference, the 25-year-old detailed his troubles, saying: “It’s difficult to be here, it’s not what I wanted to do but last night I started to feel not very well.
“I woke up at 1am and I started vomiting. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t sleep at all. Around six or 7am I woke up and vomited again and it was pretty bad. We called the doctor in the room, he came, gave me some stuff.
“I was hoping it could just be something from dinner but throughout the day I couldn’t eat. It’s tough because, for how the tournament was, how many hours I spent on court, I was actually feeling very good.
“To have to withdraw from a first grand slam semi-final is not something you wish on anybody. I feel sorry for everyone that got the tickets and came, all the Italians that came to watch us.”
It is only the third time in the open era and the first time at Roland Garros that there has been a withdrawal ahead of a men’s grand slam semi-final.
The most recent occurred four years ago at Wimbledon, when Rafael Nadal sustained an abdominal injury and was unable to take on Nick Kyrgios, while it also happened at the Australian Open in 1992.
The news came through after Zverev’s march towards an expected first grand slam title continued with a semi-final victory over young Czech Jakub Mensik.
The second seed is trying to shake off the tag of best male player never to win a slam and the tennis gods appear to be smiling on him in Paris – although Cobolli will now be well rested ahead of Sunday’s match.
Zverev has seen his big rivals for the title fall away while he has eased through the draw – dropping just two sets – and he overcame a third-set wobble in a 7-5 6-2 3-6 6-3 success against 26th seed Mensik.
The 29-year-old does not think Cobolli’s free pass will give him an advantage on Sunday, saying: “Not really, because I feel fine. I didn’t have brutally long matches. I honestly feel like I could play again now.
“I think it’s not the way that you want a semi-final of a grand slam to happen, but I also saw Matteo in the locker room and he looked awful. I understand it. There’s nothing much he can do.
“Things like that happen. We’re all human. I don’t think that it’s going to be a big difference on Sunday.”
Mensik has announced himself as a likely major contender in the near future this fortnight, knocking out Alex De Minaur, Andrey Rublev and fellow young gun Joao Fonseca.
But the 20-year-old had spent four hours more on court in reaching the last four than Zverev and he could not sustain the consistent level needed to really challenge the German.
Sunday will be Zverev’s fourth slam final and second in Paris after he lost to Carlos Alcaraz from two-sets-to-one up, two years ago.
He came even closer in his maiden final against Dominic Thiem at the US Open in 2020, blowing a two-set lead and losing in a deciding tie-break, while he was well beaten by Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open final last year.
