Arthur Fils won a hotly contested final against Ugo Humbert at the Tokyo tournament. A meeting which turned on this magnificent backhand from the Ile-de-France native to save a match point against him.
Arthur Fils achieved a small feat. The great French hope won the Tokyo tournament this Tuesday by becoming the first player to beat Ugo Humbert in a final. Messin had won his first six title matches, and he could become the first to win his first seven finals on the ATP circuit. It was without counting on his friend Fils, his Davis Cup partner, who won in Japan by winning in three sets (5-7, 7-6 [6]6-3).
“It’s been an incredible week”confided Arthur Fils to the media, in comments reported by L’Equipe. “ Since the first very difficult match against Taylor (Fritz), I don’t know, I have the impression that everything went by quickly, explains the one who had a hell of a fight this week (Fritz, Berrettini, Shelton, Rune and therefore Humbert). I’m happy. Today the final was crazy. We are close friends (with Ugo) and I knew he was going to play an incredible match. He had never lost a final before. It was very hard. Tennis can change in a second. I won today. but I could have lost. I’m very happy with the way I handled the situation mentally, physically too. »
Mahut: “We don’t know where he will stop”
When Arthur Son says that “tennis can change in a second”he is undoubtedly thinking of this match point saved in the tie-break of the second set. After a big defense, the Ile-de-France resident released a pretty fantastic long line pass.
“It’s probably the best backhand I’ve hit all week! »he admitted. In the tough on a physical level, started by his fights of the previous days (while Humbert had had less contested meetings during the week), Fils hung on and finally found some color in the third round. The mark of the greats.
While he is virtually 21st in the world, Son can continue to look towards the summits. “ Certainly, there are monsters like Alcaraz, but he is only 20 years old, he is only progressing, notes Nicolas Mahut,
who commented on the match on Eurosport. Two years ago, he wasn’t in the top 200 and he finished the season winning a title and getting closer to 30th place. There, he has two 500s to his name. There are times in the season where it has been more complicated and where he has had holes, but he is progressing and we don’t know where he will stop. (…) I see it Top 10 : there is room and it will fit. »
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