Daniil Medvedev piled the praise on rising star Arthur Fils after defeating the 19-year-old 6-4 6-2 in Vienna. Fils has established himself as one of the sport’s hottest young prospects this year, winning his maiden title in Lyon and storming up the rankings to a career-high of No 38 in the world. Medvedev now believes that it’s only a matter of time before Fils upsets a big star and can see the Frenchman sitting near the top of the rankings for the next ten years.
Fils came into Vienna on form after reaching his second career final in Antwerp, losing out to Alexander Bublik. But he was no match for top seed and reigning champion Medvedev, who dropped just six games in a routine 75-minute victory over the youngster.
While the world No 3 was able to get the better of the teenager, he was well aware that Fils was a promising young player and tipped the Frenchman to get a big win over a top player soon enough. “Arthur had just played in a final last week, he arrived with a lot of confidence,” Medvedev said after his victory.
“I know that he wants this top win and he’s going to get it one day, he is very young.” Assessing Fils’ game, Medvedev thought that he was more dangerous on a clay court but was on his way to becoming an all-rounder.
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The former world No 1 continued: “Right now, maybe I see him as a much better player on clay courts, but look at what he did last week, an indoor hard court final. Typically, indoor hard courts are much faster than those played outdoors, the conditions make everything go a little faster, so Arthur will end up being a dangerous player on each of the surfaces.”
Fils has already climbed from No 251 to No 38 this year and Medvedev is expecting to see the teenager not only reach the top 10, but to stay there for the next decade. He added: “He is super young, he has made a tremendous leap in the ranking, young people like him end up reaching the top 10, sooner or later.
“His progression suggests that he will be up there for the next ten years, as long as nothing strange happens, you never know. He has great potential, so let’s hope he can develop it.” As well as his monumental rise up the rankings, Fils has also taken huge strides on the ATP Tour this year.
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The Frenchman had never won a match at tour level going into the 2023 season. He started the year by winning his first title at Challenger level and quickly started hitting milestones on the ATP Tour, getting his first match win in Montpellier back in February. He didn’t stop there, storming his way into his first tour semi-final before losing to eventual champion Jannik Sinner.
And it was back-to-back semi-finals for Fils, who followed up his Montpellier run by reaching the same stage in Marseille two weeks later. And he kept on rolling, winning the Lyon Open and subsequently making his top 100 debut.
Since then, the 19-year-old has made his Grand Slam debut at the French Open, earned his first victory over a top-five player in Casper Ruud at the Hamburg Open, won his first Major match at the US Open. Most recently, he made his second final in Antwerp by upsetting top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas en route. Fils now sits at a career-high of No 38 in the world.
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