Arthur Fils returns to Jeddah to play at the Next Gen Finals for the second consecutive year. The Frenchman finished runner-up to Hamad Medjedovic in the championships match of last year’s edition of this tournament. This year’s edition of the under-20 tournament is held three weeks later in the calendar and will serve as a preparation to the 2025 season.
“This year it’s late in the season. It’s almost the new season, actually. We have already started to practice very hard in the preseason and everything. It’s been three or four weeks that I am practicing”, said Fils.
Fils will open his campaign at the this year’s edition of the Next Gen ATP Finals against Joao Fonseca. Fils is aiming to avenge his defeat against Fonseca, who won their previous head-to-head match in Rio de Janeiro last February.
Fils made a breakthrough in 2023 when he beat Francisco Cerundolo to win the ATP 250 title in Lyon becoming the youngest French player at 18 years to win an ATP Tour since Gael Monfils in 2005
Fils followed his first title in 2023 with two ATP titles in Hamburg on clay and in Tokyo on hard court.
Fils won his first ATP 500 title at the age of 20 achieving his second top 5 win when he beat Alexander Zverev in the final of the Hamburg Open in July 2024 after beating second seed Holger Rune in the quarter final and third seed Sebastian Baez.
Last September Fils beat top seed Taylor Fritz, Matteo Berrettini, defending champion Ben Shelton and sixth seed Holger Rune before beating his compatriot Ugo Humbert in the final to claim his second ATP 500 title and his third career title overall in Tokyo. He achieved three of these four wins in the third set. Fils saved a match point in the tie-break of the second set in the final against Humbert to prevail 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 in the final.
Arthur Fils: “I don’t know how I turned around during the final against Humbert. I struggled with an injury for much of the second set. After 5-5 in the first set, I was feeling dead on the court. He was playing unbelievable shots. It was a very tight first set. I got a lot of break points and did not break. Humbert is a great champion and it was very tough”.
Fils clinched four top 20 wins en route to the Tokyo title. This win helped Fils climb into the top 20 of the ATP Ranking. Fils became the youngest French player to record a main draw win at the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris Bercy since Richard Gasquet in 2006 when he beat Croatia’s Marin Cilic 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 to reach the second round.
“Hamburg was unbelievable but Tokyo was crazy. It was a tough week. I played against so many great players”, said Fils.
The Frenchman ended the year at a career-high of world number 20. He is aiming to win at least one more ATP title and finish the season with a new career-high for the 2025 season. He will start the 2025 season in Hong Kong in the build-up to the Australian Open.
Despite the pressure of playing at the highest level Fils wants to continue having fun.
“I set the personal goal to smile during every match. That’s the most important thing, because if I don’t have any pleasure to be on the court then I don’t play good. I try to have fun, to enjoy the moment. When I am like this, I know that I am playing good”, said Fils.
The 2025 Next Gen Finals will be the opportunity to test new rules. This year players will warm up for three minutes. It’s a change from no warm-ups this year, but shorter than the usual five minutes on the ATP Tour.
“Three minutes are pretty good. Five minutes sometimes are a bit long”.
