After his first two semi-finals on the main circuit in Montpellier and Marseille, Arthur Fils (18 years old, 104th in the world) experienced a little disappointment when he lost in the first round of the Challenger de Pau against Kaichi Uchida (28, 172nd in the world). ). The Japanese, whose best ranking was 155th, has won only three matches on the main circuit in his career, but he remained in a semi-final at the Challenger in Rovereto (Italy).
Facing Son, he proved that he was far from being clumsy in the rhythm game and in finding angles. The Frenchman, who had broken from the start, led 5-2 in the first set before being caught and capitulating in the tie-break on a double fault (7-6 [5]). In the second set, he quickly gave up, sometimes lacking conviction on certain strikes against a freed opponent who ended up serving very well.
Fils committed two new double faults to offer another break at 3-0, before losing 6-1. The passage of the course of the top 100 will wait a bit for the Frenchman.
