Matteo Arnaldi put the doubts over his fitness to one side with a composed three-set win over Fabian Marozsan in the second round of the National Bank Open in Montreal, completing a perfect day for Italian tennis.
The No. 30 seed, who withdrew from Washington last week with the foot problem that has troubled him for over a year, came through 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 against the Hungarian. It was, by his own admission, a match of management rather than fireworks. "We were quite close in the first set," Arnaldi said. "I played a bad game before the third set and let it go a little, because I still don't feel confident enough to play three full sets at full throttle. Then in the third I managed to climb back, it was the set where I moved best and played best, so I'm happy. Looking at where I was a week ago, I'm very happy."
The victory made it two wins from two for the Italians on day four in Montreal. Arnaldi had arrived under a cloud after retiring in Washington, and he revealed after the match that his problems are not limited to the right foot. "I have exactly the same thing in the other foot now," he explained. "The other one had a micro-fracture; in this one there is no micro-fracture, just oedema and things like that, so I know how to manage it. My feet are quite problematic, but the right one is much better now, so if we keep following the same path we took with the right one, I'm sure there won't be too many problems."
