Arthur Fils lost to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals of the Madrid Open, but the young French star is keeping a great sense of humor about it. Right now, basically nobody on the ATP Tour can touch the Italian. But Fils went into the match full of confidence, and walked away with a heavy reality check and a few lessons before their potential rematch at the Rome Masters.
Arthur Fils Uses ‘Massacre’ Defeat By Jannik Sinner as a Lesson After Hoping to ‘Make Him Lose’
Going into their Madrid matchup, Fils was playing some of the best tennis of his career. He had just captured an ATP 500 title at the Barcelona Open (defeating Andrey Rublev in the final), and he hadn’t lost on clay leading up to the Madrid semifinals. The Frenchman actually thought he had a shot to force a major upset.
“It was funny because when we stepped on the court, we both didn’t lose one game on clay and I was like, ‘OK, maybe I’m going to make him lose’,” Fils admitted on a pre-Rome interview with a smile. “Didn’t happen.”
Instead, the world No. 1 easily won the semifinal match in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4.
When reporters asked how he felt while facing Sinner, the Frenchman replied with his classic sarcasm. “Toe to toe, man (laughs) It’s not that toe to toe. For the first set, it was more of a massacre, but it was okay.”
However, instead of letting the “massacre” ruin his confidence, Fils took it as a lesson and went straight back to practice.
“It’s a great experience for me. I mean, now I took some lessons from it,” Fils explained. “I’m trying to work on it as well. And hopefully the next time we play, it’s going to be a bit nicer for me. But actually, I really enjoyed it.”
The Italian is on a historic 22-match winning streak. He hasn’t lost a single match since a surprise defeat in Doha back in February. Since then, Sinner has absolutely steamrolled the tour, winning the Sunshine Double at Indian Wells and the Miami Open, followed by the Monte-Carlo Masters. He is currently attempting to become the first man to win the first four Masters 1000 tournaments of the season.
“He’s a great champion. He didn’t lose one match since Indian Wells, so it’s a lot of wins,” Fils added. “It was very nice to share the court with him. Very nice.”
Fils’ respect for Sinner is reciprocated as well. Before they even played, Sinner praised Fils for his maturity and predicted a huge future for him on the tour.
“Arthur (Fils) is playing incredible tennis, very focused on what he needs to do and physically solid. He’s also showing great consistency. He won on hard courts and just claimed the Barcelona title on clay,” Sinner told reporters.
“That should give him plenty of confidence to shine here (in Madrid), especially with Rome and Paris (Roland Garros) coming up and the French crowd behind him. France needs players like him. It’s clear he has to be taken very seriously,” Sinner added.
Now, in Rome, the draw has Sinner and Fils projected to face off in the 4th Round (Round of 16). On Friday, Sinner and Fils will play their Ro64 match at the Italian Open, although their opponents are not yet confirmed.
