Matteo Arnaldi on his relationship with Melbourne’s Mia Savio

Jet-setting tennis star Matteo Arnaldi jokes that he’s a citizen of the world, but the world No.37 can’t help but feel more than a little bit Australian thanks to some fortuitous events in the middle of Italy two years ago.

Arnaldi was fighting hard to make his way in professional tennis, playing in lower-tier events on the Challenger tour, when he met his partner Mia Savio, a Melbourne resident who’d travelled to study at the university for foreigners in the city of Perugia in June.

Matteo Arnaldi and his girlfriend, Mia Savio. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

“She was there to study, and I was there in the same city to play a tournament,” recalled Arnaldi, now aged 23.

“Then she, through a friend, she came to watch – [watch] one of my best friends! And then we met and started to date.”

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