Arthur Fils qualifies in Lyon for the first final of his career

He celebrated his victory a little too early, the fault of an ”in” ball which he had estimated ”out”, but Arthur Fils ended up savoring his success on Friday in the semi-finals of the tournament. Lyon against Brandon Nakashima (7-5, 4-6, 7-6 [5]). The 18-year-old Frenchman came through the pain of this battle in three sets (he had cramps at the end of the match) and will play his first final on the circuit on Saturday. To snatch his first title, he will have to dominate Francisco Cerundolo.

Laurent Raymond’s protege had to keep his cool to conclude this meeting. However, he had a break in advance in the third set but he did not know how to keep this little savings in advance. And then at 4-4, his leg was slightly blocked on a delivery of a counter-amortization. The fear was his ankle, which had already slowed him down this year, but it was his thigh that was throwing him. An underhand serve and a miss from the American allowed him to keep his serve before he was maged into his chair.

Apparently unlocked, he offered himself a match point on the next game. An overenthusiastic spectator then shouted ”out” and Fils stopped the point to fall backwards. But the ball was very good judged the referee and everything had to be done again for the one who had played his first two ATP semi-finals Montpellier Then Marseilles at the start of the season.

Clay stuck in his hair, he managed to get back into it very quickly to finally dominate Nakashima in the decisive tie-break. The two big mistakes of his opponent helped him a lot but he could finally enjoy, like his clan who, too, had celebrated the victory too early. Guaranteed to enter the Top 100 on Monday, the Frenchman could enter it with a title under his arm. Enough to approach Roland-Garros, which begins on Sunday, with a conquering state of mind.