A bye put Arthur Fils into the second round in his first event as the No. 1 seed. A walkover got him to the quarterfinals. Finally, on Friday he got his tournament underway and – thanks to an incredible effort from Alex Michelsen late in the second set – was forced to work.
The work finally went Fils’ way after the Frenchman missed on his first five match points during the second-set tiebreak. Finally, he got over the line, claiming the 26-point breaker to take his place in the semifinals.
“Well, you know, everyone was telling me, ‘Oh, it’s so nice, you’re starting in the quarterfinal already,’ you know?” Fils said on court. “And actually, it’s the worst thing that can happen. I played Alex, an unbelievable player. He has his rhythm, you know, too much. I’m coming for the first time, I play on this court, so, yeah, it was not easy. Very happy with the way I handled it.”
Leading by a set and a break late in the second, Fils looked on his way to an uncomplicated victory in his first meeting with his fellow 22-year-old.
“For sure, at 6-4, 5-3, I saw myself in the locker room taking a shower, easy,” Fils told the crowd after the 6-4, 7-6(12) win over 37th-ranked Michelsen. “Then, I don’t know, he battled very hard, and he was playing way better tennis than mine, actually. So I had to vary the battle, and I’m very happy to finish in two sets.”
The 22-year-old Fils improved to 36-13 on the season. He will face either Jan-Lennard Struff or Zizou Bergs in one of Saturday’s semifinals.
He saved three of four break points overall and won 79 percent of his first-serve points.
The No. 10-ranked Frenchman hit 18 forehand winners to seven for Michelsen and won the majority of points that lasted nine strokes or fewer (76 to 60).
Third-seeded Francisco Cerundolo will face Tallon Griekspoor in the lower-half semifinal in Brussels.
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