After the inaugural defeat of the Blues against Australia, Arthur Fils cracked against Bautista Agut (6-2, 5-7, 4-6).
The French tennis team is trailing Spain by one point in their second match in Pool B of the Davis Cup group stage, after Roberto Bautista’s victory over Arthur Fils on Friday in Valencia, Spain.
Fils, 20 years old (25th in the world), lost to the 62nd player in the world, 16 years his senior, in three sets 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 at the end of a match lasting almost three hours during which the Frenchman committed 60 unforced errors compared to only 29 for his opponent.
The second singles match, the summit of the encounter, will pit Carlos Alcaraz (world number 3) against Ugo Humbert (18th). The doubles, which will be decisive if the French number 1 beats Alcaraz, will then pit Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Edouard Roger-Vasselin against the Spaniards Carlos Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers.
Against Bautista, Fils immediately made the break, which the Spaniard immediately erased. But Fils again took the opponent’s serve in the process to break away 3-1 and win the first set 6-2.
In the second, Fils continued to lead the race, up to 5-4. But while serving for the match, Fils, under pressure from the stakes, lost control, abandoned his service game on a double fault, then the set by making a series of huge unforced errors, against a former world No. 9 player who was weighing on him with the weight of his experience. In the final set, Bautista made the decisive break at 3-3, and ended the game with a shutout.
In the event of another defeat, France, defeated in the opening match by Australia 2-1, will not participate in the eight-team final phase, reserved for the top two in each of the four qualifying groups, scheduled in Malaga, Spain, again from November 19 to 24. Spain, for its part, won its first match against the Czech Republic 3-0.
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