Arthur Fils wins on return at Montpellier after injury layoff

No. 6 seed Arthur Fils has hit the ground running at the Open Occitanie, his first tournament since early August 2025 after being sidelined by a back injury.

The 21-year-old shook off the rust with a 50-winner performance—including 14 aces—against countryman Valentin Royer at the ATP 250 event in Montpellier, France. Fils closed out the victory 7-6(7), 6-7(4), 6-2 after two hours and 33 minutes.

"It's been a while since I last competed, so returning to the circuit is great,” Fils told press during Media Day. “I feel a lot of joy and happiness. I'm very excited to be back on the courts with so many fans.

“It's been a long process. I'm back, so that means everything is positive, both mentally and physically."

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Fils was forced to withdraw from Roland Garros in May 2025 after suffering a lower back injury—later diagnosed as a stress fracture—during his epic five-set, four-and-a-half-hour second-round battle against Jaume Munar. The match was later selected as the second-best of 2025, according to Tennis.com’s Steve Tignor.

He attempted a comeback in Canada in August 2025, winning a singles match and partnering Ben Shelton to reach the doubles quarterfinals, but it quickly became clear he was not ready. Soon after, he announced he was shutting down his season to recover.

"Excluding Roland Garros, I think withdrawing from the Masters 1000 in Paris was the hardest moment,” he said in Montpellier.

“No matter what the doctors said, I knew that, eventually, I would return and be ready to play at my best level. I've learned this about myself: I'm not a very anxious person."

The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for the red-hot Frenchman, who had climbed to a career-high No. 14 in April 2025 after reaching the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, Miami (including a win over world No. 2 Alexander Zverev) and Monte Carlo, as well as the semifinals in Barcelona.

Now ranked No. 42, Fils is eager to get back on track and make up for lost time as he prepares to defend those points.

He skipped the opening weeks of the 2026 season—missing the entire Australian swing—to continue rehabbing his back, a decision he revealed in a vlog on his recently launched YouTube channel. He also shared that he has been working with a nutritionist and has lost a significant amount of weight—“six or seven kilos since Roland Garros,” he confirmed in Montpellier—in an effort to reduce strain on his body.

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"I'm 21, I still have around 10 to 15 years of career [ahead], so it's not a race," Fils told viewers in the vlog.

"I work with a lot of people to try to start fresh ... and I think that now I'm on the right track, so I've got to continue."

Up next, Fils faces another all-French battle against lucky loser Ugo Blanchet in Thursday’s second round. The winner could meet top seed and defending champion Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinals.