Arthur Fils, the 21-year-old French tennis star, is making up for lost time after an eight-month layoff due to a stress fracture in his lower back. The injury, sustained during his epic five-set victory over Jaume Munar at Roland Garros last May, forced him to shut down his season and withdraw from the third round, just as he had become a new French hope.
At the Miami Open, Fils demonstrated his resilience by saving four match points against Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals, despite struggling with cramp in the third set. He won six consecutive points to reach his first Masters-level semi-final, celebrating with a shirt-raising roar that recalled his earlier show-stopping form.
Fils, who reached a career-high ranking of 14 before his injury, missed the Australian Open in January to play it safe. He made his comeback in Montpellier in February and soon announced he had started working with Goran Ivanisevic, the former Wimbledon champion and coach of Novak Djokovic. The partnership quickly bore fruit as Fils reached the final in Doha, where he was thrashed by Carlos Alcaraz in a 50-minute final.
Despite the defeat, Fils took heart from Alcaraz's performance, calling it a 'joke', and has since adopted the mantra 'GABOS' (game ain't based on sympathy), which he writes on camera lenses after wins. 'That's the mentality,' Fils said after his Miami comeback. 'It was a dog fight and I never back down from a fight.'
Fils will face Czechia's Jiri Lehecka in the semi-finals on Friday, with a chance to reach his first Masters final.
