Frances Tiafoe, the last American man remaining at the French Open, was beaten by Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in a five-set, five-hour match on June 1, eliminating the United States from the men’s draw.
Arnaldi prevailed 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (5-7), 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 in a match that stretched to five hours and featured three tiebreaks. The result sent Tiafoe — the 19th seed — out of Roland Garros and left no U.S. men left in the tournament; earlier on the same day Madison Keys, the American woman mentioned among the last of the contingent, was defeated 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 by Diana Shnaider.
The scoreline underlines how tightly contested the match was: Tiafoe and Arnaldi split the first two sets in tiebreaks, exchanged a decisive third set, and traded another tiebreak before Arnaldi closed the fifth 6-4. The length and margin of the match — five hours and a five-set finish — were the defining metrics of the night.
Context sharpened the moment. Tiafoe arrived at Roland Garros as the 19 seed after reaching the quarterfinals at the tournament in 2024, his best previous finish. The 2025 draw had already seen several big names leave early, with Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek among those who exited sooner than expected, and high-profile results across the week, including Aryna Sabalenka’s straight-sets win over Naomi Osaka and other dramatic matches elsewhere on court.
Inside the match, Tiafoe mounted a mid-match surge — forcing a fourth-set tiebreak that he won 7-3 to extend the contest — but that recovery was not enough to carry him over the line. Arnaldi’s ability to break through in the final set after five hours proved decisive; Tiafoe’s rally in the fourth illustrated his fight, yet the closing 6-4 set made clear where the match had turned.
The elimination closes a chapter for the American contingent at Roland Garros: with Tiafoe gone, there are no U.S. men left in the singles draw. The broader tournament has already delivered upsets and off-court headlines, from big-name exits to separate disciplinary and long-form matches that reshaped the schedule; those developments framed an eventful fortnight around Paris’s clay.
For Tiafoe personally, the contrast with 2024 is immediate on the record: last year’s quarterfinal run is now followed by this five-set departure. FilmoGaz’s earlier coverage of his path at Roland Garros, including his meeting with Hubert Hurkacz for a place in the third round, is here:
The immediate consequence is clear — the U.S. men’s presence at the French Open has ended — but the more consequential question is unresolved: whether a five-hour, five-set defeat will have effects that reach beyond this tournament. No next match for Tiafoe at Roland Garros is on the schedule; how the long, draining loss influences his form in the weeks ahead remains the open item from a night that combined moments of resurgence with a final, decisive break of momentum.
