French tennis has something to smile about on the eve of the start of Roland-Garros. One of his most promising talents, Arthur Fils (19 years old on June 12), won the Open Parc de Lyon this Saturday. The Ile-de-France native beat Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo (6-3, 7-5), the 28th player in the world and a specialist in clay, the surface on which this tournament is played. Fils, who had an invitation to play in Lyon, was playing his first final on the main circuit. The day before, he had eliminated American Brandon Nakashima in the semis, and had taken advantage of the exclusion of Sweden's Mikael Ymer in eighth and the retirement of Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime in the quarters.
The final was marked by a complicated second set for both players on serve. The Frenchman broke twice, which angered his opponent. Cerundolo first asked his clan to leave the stadium, without success, before breaking the chain around his neck. Despite these surges of anger, he always took over the service of Arthur Fils in the aftermath. The third break was the right one. With five games to go, the Argentine made two double faults in a row and gave the 2021 junior Roland Garros runner-up the opportunity to finish the job on his serve. He was not asked.
On Monday, the new winner of the Open Parc will enter the top 100 of the ATP rankings. It is expected to be around 63rd in the world. On the same day, he will face Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (34th in the world) in the first round of Roland-Garros.
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