Authoritarian, Arthur Fils successfully enters the Masters 1000 in Paris and reaches the round of 16

Second good news in the same day for Arthur Fils. A few hours after learning of his qualification for the end-of-season ATP Masters – the tournament bringing together the eight best players of the year – the Frenchman made a convincing debut at the Masters 1000 in Paris, Wednesday November 4. Opposed to the Czech Tomas Machac, 60th in the world and from qualifying, he did not let doubt settle in, winning in two sets (6-3, 7-6[4]) and 1h27 of play.

Arthur Fils showed his intention to do well from the first strokes of the racket. The one who started his match with a winning service signed the first break in his opponent's first service game and led 3-0 in just seven minutes of play. After rolling on all his faceoffs, while hanging Machac on his, the Frenchman logically took the lead after forty minutes of play (6-3). He had a little more difficulty making the difference in the second round against a Czech in search of a rebound, who slipped from 20th ATP place to 60th in one year.

In pursuit, and more comfortable on his forehand than on his backhand, Arthur Fils only found the opening after a tie-break which had started rather badly (0-2). Pushed by the public at the Nanterre Arena, he finally took the upper hand and validated his success with a winning serve. The 22-year-old rising star reaches the round of 16 for the second time in the Paris tournament after 2024 (Alexander Zverev had ended his career) and was reassuring on a physical level a week after his retirement in the middle of a match in Basel.

Son imitates Halys, Rinderknech and Van Assche

Earlier in the day, three French people had also validated their qualification for the round of 16. Quentin Halys surprised Frances Tiafoe, seeded n°7, in three sets (6-3, 1-6, 7-6). Luca van Assche also defied the predictions by defeating Learner Tien (n°15) in two sets (7-6, 6-4) and Arthur Rinderknech held his place against Mattia Belluci, from qualifying (6-4, 6-1). Only Ugo Humbert was not smiling on Wednesday. The latter was beaten by Matteo Berrettini (7-6, 7-5).