Novak Djokovic has responded to Matteo Arnaldi’s tweet in a brutal retweet as the rising ATP star issued a challenge to the 24-time major champion.
Arnaldi thrilled fans by doing the splits during his Vienna Open R2 match against Russian Andrey Rublev earlier this week; the Italian lost match.
Djokovic identified as ‘rubber man’, is considered to be the most flexible player on the tour and is all well-known for his ferocious sliding on the court on returns with him displaying the skill of split on regular basis since he entered the tour. The Serbian’s superhuman elasticity has led fans to compare him to Spider-Man. However, Arnaldi seems to contest for the title and has exhibited some impressive effort to at least share it with the 36-year-old, the veteran Spider-Man.
The 22-year-old shared a story on Instagram while tagging Djokovic and wrote: “I’m coming for you.”
The Serbian issued a response to the Italian on his own story and suggested that the 22-year-old has to do the work in right direction before challenging him for the Spider-Man title.
In a brutally hilarious response, the world No. 1 captioned the image of ATP #46 doing the splits paralleled with the Spider-Man and wrote: “First, you need to be facing the net and not the wall. Then we can talk.”
In an interview with II Messaggero last year, Arnaldi hailed the 24-time Grand Slam champion as his idol and drew parallels between him and the legendary Serb admitting that his style and flexibility is modeled on Djokovic’s blueprints.
“Djokovic has always been my idol, in Rome I even warmed him up before a match, he is my reference. Proportionally there are similarities: I too would define myself as a counter-attacker and I have always done the splits. Believe me, I am little Djokovic,” declared the Italian.
Arnaldi shared the experience of practicing with the 2023 US Open champion during the last year Italian Open in Rome.
“Technically I found him extremely clean compared to the others I have played with up to now. His ball is very flat and you have a hard time playing with it, even on clay. It takes away your time, you can’t do anything you have in mind,” discussed Arnaldi.
The 22-tyear has made an impressive breakthrough on the circuit with a 19-14 record in 2023 as he reached the semis in Umag earlier in July followed by another highlight at the US Open where he made it to the final 16 to end up as a lucky loser against his idol Novak Djokovic, the eventual champion at Flushing Meadows.