Peter Staples/ATP Tour
Arthur Fils downs Frances Tiafoe to reach the fourth round in Miami.
By ATP Staff
Arthur Fils let loose in the face of cramps to earn a thrilling third-round victory Monday at the Miami Open presented by Itau.
The 20-year-old Frenchman won the final five games to claim a 7-6(11), 5-7, 6-2 triumph against Frances Tiafoe at the hard-court ATP Masters 1000. Fils, who let slip two match points in the second set, rallied from a break down at 1-2 in the decider by changing tactics to try and hit winners as soon as he could.
“It was very tough. When I got into the third set, I was cramping and I couldn’t find the rhythm anymore,” explained Fils, who will play top seed Alexander Zverev in the fourth round. “My serve was tough and I couldn’t jump, so I tried to relax and play as fast as I could and hit as strong as I could. Somehow it worked.
“It’s not going to work every day, that’s for sure. Maybe once or twice out of 10 it’s going to work, and today it worked. I’m very happy about it, but Frances is a hell of a champion. It’s the first time we have played, and I hope we are going to have many more great battles.”
An EPIC in the 305 ❤️🔥@ArthurFils1 becomes the first Frenchman to reach the fourth round of both Indian Wells and Miami in the same season since Jeremy Chardy in 2018!@MiamiOpen | #MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/KCGMxGNf4n
— ATP Tour (@atptour) March 24, 2025
In a match that ebbed and flowed throughout, Fils saved six set points in the first set before claiming it 13/11 in the joint-longest tie-break of the 2025 season so far. He then missed his first two match points at 5-4 in the second set, before Tiafoe reeled off a three-game streak to send the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head to a decider.
The home favourite Tiafoe, who was aiming to secure back-to-back tour-level wins for the first time since he reached the US Open semi-finals last September, appeared to have taken control of the third set with a break in the third game. Then came Fils’ late barrage, however, during which the Frenchman notched three consecutive breaks of serve of his own with a series of searing blows off both wings.
Fils converted four of 14 break points he earned in the two-hour, 55-minute encounter, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The Frenchman is now up two spots to No. 16 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, boosting his chances of setting a new career high after Miami, while he has now also reached the fourth round in his three most recent Masters 1000 events.
“It means a lot for sure,” said Fils, who has achieved that feat across Paris (last season), Indian Wells and Miami. “It’s the first time at the Masters that I’ve reached the fourth round twice [in a year]. In Indian Wells it was very good, and I was thinking that this week was going to be tough.
“I was very focused to play the opening round against [Gabriel] Diallo. He got injured, and I’m sorry about it, and then today I found a way. Now we are in the fourth round, I’m going to play against the top seed, and let’s see how it goes.”
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