The match, which started on Monday evening, began as a close battle between the 43rd-ranked Arnaldi and the 92nd-ranked Van de Zandschulp, whose grass season only started on June 21st with a qualifying loss against Nishesh Basavareddy on Mallorca.
The first set only saw Van de Zandschulp get to two break points, and the pair were separated by just one point before the tiebreak. In the tiebreak, the Italian had a mini-break advantage before collapsing and giving up four straight points, which handed Van de Zandschulp his first set win.
Arnaldi, who played just one match after his French Open second-round loss to Flavio Cobolli, struck first in the second set with a break in Van de Zandschulp's second service game. However, the Italian couldn't enjoy the lead for long as Van de Zandschulp took his chance on the third break point of the set. A long twelfth game, which saw Arnaldi win on his fifth advantage point and Van de Zandschulp never reach break point, preceded the second tiebreak of the match.
As opposed to the first tiebreak, which saw five mini-breaks, the pair combined for just one mini-break in the second as Van de Zandschulp went up 2-0 in sets on his third set point and with a 7-5 tiebreak win.
After the Dutchman took a two-set lead, the match was abandoned before the third set could start as darkness called the first day of Wimbledon to a halt.
Seemingly on his way to his fourth consecutive second round at Wimbledon, Van de Zandschulp upped his service game in the third set, in which he hit an 84% first-serve rate. Successfully defending two break points and outplaying his Italian opponent in all crucial metrics, Van de Zandschulp marched to a 6-4 set win over Arnaldi, who was dumped out of Wimbledon with a straight-sets loss.
After his win over Arnaldi, Van de Zandschulp, who became the highest-ranked Dutch player still at Wimbledon after Tallon Griekspoor's loss to Jenson Brooksby, will meet Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round of the British major.
View all the match statistics on Flashscore.
