Fils, winner by retirement: “It is very difficult to win a match like that against a friend”

Arthur Fils achieved a huge feat this Thursday. Up against a very in-form Hubert Hurkacz, the Frenchman delivered a very beautiful game, taking great advantage of his opponent’s uncharacteristic poor form that day.

Quickly leading two sets to love (7-6, 6-4), things started to get complicated when the Pole dominated the third set and came back into the match (7-6, 6-4, 2-6).

Then, as the two men were engaged in an epic tie-break in the fourth set, Hurkacz got injured, seemingly quite seriously. After attempting to continue the match, the world number 7 had to accept the reality and retired from the match.

Questioned about this rather peculiar match, the world number 34 explained: “It is very difficult to win a match like that against a friend. We were playing very well in the fourth set. We had very good points, he was jumping everywhere.

I am really sorry for him and I hope he recovers very quickly. As for me, I am focusing on the next round. At the beginning, I didn’t really like the grass.

But I feel like I am playing well and I am very happy to be in the third round. I will do my best to be in the second week.”