Arthur Fils was successful in winning the Hamburg Open 2024 title after beating the World No.4 and home favorite Alexander Zverev in the final on Sunday. The Frenchman had a bit of a hiccup when he couldn’t capitalise on his first set win in the second, but he held his horses to win the deciding set for his first ATP 500 title. At the age of 20, this is one of Fil’s biggest achievements and he had a lot more to celebrate about.
Fils jumped 8 spots from 28th to 20th in the ATP rankings on Monday, gaining 475 points for his title win. Making it to the top 20 of the rankings being so young is a record in itself. He becomes the first man born in 2004 or after to make it to the elite club.
Apart from that, Fils also managed to do something the current World No.1, Jannik Sinner did back in 2021. In what is a terrific co-incidence, Sinner too entered the top 20 of the ATP rankings when he was aged 20.
So the French youngster has someone to look up to, who maybe more experienced than him, but is not older than him by much. It will be interesting to see if Fils will follow Sinner’s footsteps in the near future as well and replicate his success story too.
Even if Fils doesn’t become the World No.1 anytime soon, he has shown enough promise to be part of the next ‘Big Three’ of men’s tennis. After Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, many believe that Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are already the ‘Big Two’.
The third player to complete the dominant trio has been missing for long. While some believed at one point that it will be the likes of Zverev himself or Holger Rune or Stefanos Tsitsipas for instance, it hasn’t materialised.
Will Fils Enter the Big 3 Club Soon?
Even after facing a hostile crowd and Zverev having the height advantage and hitting powerful serves in the Hamburg final, Fils maintained his composure to win. In fact, he used his skill and calmness so well that he stunned Zverev with an underarm serve at the 5-5 scoreline in the third set.
Even though the set went into a tiebreaker, Fils pulled off arguably the biggest win of his career so far for his first ATP 500 title. Beating the French Open 2024 finalist and a former World No.2 player is no mean feat.
The youngster became only the third person after Roger Federer and Lorenzo Musetti to clinch the Hamburg Open title before the age of 21.
This was Fils’ second-ever ATP title, having won the first one in Lyon last year. In the Hamburg Open 2023, he defeated Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals. He was also awarded with the Newcomer of the Year award in the same year.
The Wimbledon 2024 tournament was quite successful for the upcoming star as he defeated the seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz to reach the Round of 32 in a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. He ended up by making it to the Round of 16, in which he lost to another rising star, Alex de Minaur.
A player like de Minaur will be tough competition for Fils on any surface. So the journey won’t be easy for the Frenchman as he has just begun his ascent to the top levels of the tennis world. Fils will need impressive showings at tournaments like the Olympics, Masters 1000s and the US Open this year to transition from being just a ‘newcomer’ to a member of that ‘Big Three’ club.
But performances from players like Fil in Hamburg show that tennis is in safe hands indeed and that, there is a future once Djokovic and Nadal retire from the sport.
