Four Match Points, One Unbelievable Victory for Arthur Fils

It took Arthur Fils two hours and 34 minutes to earn his first break point—by that time, the Frenchman had already fought off six of his own—during Wednesday night’s Miami Open quarterfinal against Tommy Paul.

It just so happened to be a match point, with Paul serving at 5-6, ad-out.

Quickly extinguished by Paul, the pair headed to a third-set tiebreak—a fitting end to a high-quality contest played with creativity, intensity and passion from start to finish.

Paul, no doubt buoyed after saving match point, raced out to a 6-2 lead in the breaker. He held four match points and stood on the cusp of his fifth career Masters 1000 semifinal.

What happened next was the stuff of legend.

Fils, with his back against the wall, unleashed, seizing every opportunity as the match points slipped away, one after another.

Moments later, he was level at 6-all—and there was no looking back. The Frenchman claimed the final two points to seal a 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 7-6(6) victory in two hours and 47 minutes of riveting tennis.

During the match, the 21-year-old Fils—who will face Jiri Lehecka in the semifinals—fired 15 forehands over 100 mph, including three in the final-set tiebreak, according to Mike Cation, who was tracking data courtside during commentary.

It took a Herculean effort to get past Paul, who was equally magnificent in the high-quality battle.

“It was a dogfight and I never back down from a fight,” Fils said in his on-court interview, pacing between answers to avoid cramping. “Even if I lose, it’s okay—I just fought the best that I could.”

Fils becomes the youngest Frenchman to reach a Masters 1000 semifinal since 2007, and the fifth Frenchman to reach the Miami semis—the first since Richard Gasquet in 2013.

Fils saved all six break points he faced, but it was the four match points he erased that will be etched into the lore of the tournament—and his career.

On the first, he bullied a forehand before forcing an error with a blistering crosscourt backhand. On the second, he struck another backhand that forced Paul to float a volley, which Fils finished emphatically. On the third, he outlasted Paul in a grinding rally, drawing a forehand error. And on the fourth, serving, he delivered a wide first-serve winner that Paul could barely touch.

Two points later, after a Paul forehand sailed long to give Fils a second match point, he again held firm, drawing a backhand error that sent shockwaves through Hard Rock Stadium.