Arthur Fils suffered the same fate as his great friend Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, beaten in four sets (4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2) by Lorenzo Musetti a little earlier this Monday. The world number 34 also lost in four sets (6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3) to Alex De Minaur, world number 9. With this setback, in addition to Humbert’s against Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday (6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5) and that of Mpetshi Perricard, there are no more French players in singles at Wimbledon.
De Minaur is a formidable grass-court player, winner of two titles including that of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) this year but who had never done better than an eighth at Wimbledon, in 2022. The anomaly is repaired. The 25-year-old Australian awaits his opponent in the quarter-finals: it will be world number 2 Novak Djokovic or the Dane Holger Rune, 15th.
For the first time in the round of 16 of a Grand Slam tournament at 20 years old, Fils was, as he has been since the beginning of the fortnight, very aggressive, trying to make the game with his forehand. But Sébastien Grosjean’s protégé ran into a wall for most of the match. Both men hit more or less the same number of winners – 24 for Fils, 22 for De Minaur – but the higher ranked player was much less generous with unforced errors: 66 for Fils, 41 for De Minaur.
Flamboyant son at the end of the 3rd
De Minaur, who had a superb season, was subjected to Fils’ attacks, but he always found a way to counter them, in a mixture of fantastic defenses, high-quality comebacks and well-timed attacks. While Fils was getting annoyed, regularly turning to his clan wondering what it took to win a point.
On several occasions, Fils gave De Minaur a hard time. He led 3-0 in the second set and had a fantastic end to the third when he was trailing 6-2, 6-4, 4-2. To do this, the young Frenchman was flamboyant, sending huge forehand slaps but also showing himself to be a fine tactician, slowing down the game, forcing De Minaur to take the net, not the area where the Australian excels. Which somewhat unsettled the Australian, especially on serve. But despite losing the third set, the latter stayed the course and logically reached the quarter-finals of a Major after the US Open 2020 and Roland-Garros this year.
