Fils Reaches Monte-Carlo Masters Quarterfinals

Arthur Fils
Arthur Fils (photo: ATP Tour video)

MONTE-CARLO/WASHINGTON, April 10, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

The Court Des Princes is the second show court at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, site of this week’s ATP Masters 1000 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. Although it sits in the shadows of the larger, more majestic Court Rainier III, it’s on this smaller court where France’s Arthur Fils has held court in two of his three matches and played some of his best tennis of the season.

On a mostly-sunny Thursday in the Principality, the French No. 1 mastered 2023 Monte-Carlo champion Andrey Rublev, 6-2, 6-3, in just 61 minutes on Court Des Princes to advance to the quarterfinal round of the clay-court event against World No. 3 and second seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, who dominated 84th-ranked German qualifier Daniel Altmaier, 6-3, 6-1, in an hour and 26 minutes in their round of 16 match. Alcaraz sealed his 17th-win of the season with a seventh-shot overhead smash winner that delighted the crowd.

The No. 12 seed Fils, the only player from France remaining from the seven who started the week in the 56-player main draw, won 81 percent of his first-serve points – dropping just five points on his first serve. He broke Rublev’s serve five times in nine tries and outpointed the Russian 58-37. It was an impressive, all-around performance that rewarded the World No. 15 Fils with his 14th victory in 20 outings this season.

“From A to Z, I was very focused,” Fils said during his post-match news conference, translated from French. “I made the right choices. I was implementing my tactics. I was feeling good. This was a really good match.”

The 20-year-old Fils is the only player to have reached the quarterfinals of all three Masters 1000 events this season, including Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo. “It’s crazy,” he said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “Before the start of the year, I never did quarters in a Masters 1000. Now, three in a row! … Hopefully, this time I will make it to the semis. I will just try to enjoy it as much as I can.”

After the win, Fils was asked with the momentum he has gained if he could beat anyone. He replied: “Yeah, Andrey is a great champion. I had to come to the match and play my best tennis to have a chance. Today, I did it. I’m very happy about the way I played, the way I moved on the court. It was pretty good.

“I would not say I can beat anyone, but I’m feeling great. When I’m feeling great, I play well. When I play well, I can beat some guys.”

On Friday, Fils will be challenged by Alcaraz, who was in a cruise control for much of his run-away third-round match against Altmaier on Court Rainier III. He hit 16 winners, converted five of seven break points, took advantage of 29 unforced errors by Altmaier and outpointed his opponent 63-48 to collect his second career win at Monte-Carlo.

“Honestly it was difficult, Danny is playing great,” Alcaraz said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “He’s a solid clay-court player with a really difficult game to play on clay. A lot of topspin shots and [he’s] really good physically. The score doesn’t show how difficult it was. … I had to battle from the beginning the first set.

“It was good to get a break before the new balls, which helped with the serve.” Alcaraz added. “In the second set, I could be myself more, play more aggressively – even more than in the first set – and I took my chances.”

On Friday, Alcaraz will be playing in his first quarterfinal when he faces Fils in the Principality. “I’m playing the quarterfinal here in Monte-Carlo for the first time,” he said. “It’s going to be really difficult against Arthur, who is playing great tennis. It’s going to be an interesting match, it’s going to be beautiful to watch and hopefully the people are going to enjoy it.”

Not at his best, Davidovich Fokina holds off Draper to advance to last eight

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain, a 2022 finalist in Monte-Carlo, held off No. 5 seed Jack Draper of Great Britain, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4, in two hours and 47 minutes on Court Rainier III to advance to his fifth ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal – and first since his run to the Toronto semifinals in 2023.

After squandering a match point at 6-5 during a second set tie-break, Davidovich Fokina maintained his cool and won on his next match point opportunity, on return at 5-4 (30-40) in the final set, in which Draper double-faulted at a most inopportune time. The British No. 1 recorded 10 double faults during the match and had his serve broken six times in 13 attempts.

Overall, Davidovich hit 30 winners – including 18 from the forehand side – and committed a whopping 57 unforced errors, compared to 32 winners and 47 unforced errors for Draper. Davidovich Fokina outpointed his opponent 113-103.

“Today, I didn’t feel like I played my best tennis or gave my best mental strategy,” an emotional and exhausted Davidovich Fokina said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “Today was a rollercoaster with my mind. I thought I was playing better, but my mind was telling me [otherwise]. I didn’t know how to control the emotions today.”

The victory, Davidovich Fokina’s 17th tour-level win of 2025 – most this season by a Spaniard – was also his third Top-10 win in Monte-Carlo. It advanced him to Friday’s last eight against No. 27 Alexei Popyrin of Australia, who hit 48 winners and upset No. 4 seed Casper Ruud of Norway, last year’s finalist, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, in two hours and 57 minutes on Court Des Princes.

Popyrin, who garnered his first Masters 1000 title last year in Montreal, improved to 3-4 against Top-10 players on clay. En route to the quarterfinals, he’s strung together wins over Top-20 talent Ugo Humbert of France and Frances Tiafoe of the United States.

Asked to describe the difference between winning and losing against Rudd, Popyrin said in his on-court interview with ATP Media, “Just a couple of points to be honest. He had match point, I had a few of break points at the start of the second set I thought might go my way but I just missed a few opportunities. … It was a match of a lot of opportunities. I managed to dig deep. … I’m glad it paid off.”

Around the Monte-Carlo Country Club

• In an all-Italian battle, No. 13 seed Lorenzo Musetti took out Matteo Berrettini, who earlier in the week eliminated World No. 2 and top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany in Tuesday’s second round. Musetti, who has moved up to a career-high No. 14 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, equaled his best result at Monte-Carlo with his 6-3, 6-3 victory over the 34th-ranked Roman in one hour and 34 minutes on Court Rainier III.

The loss derailed Berrettini from becoming just the eighth Italian man in the Open Era to achieve 200 tour-level wins and reach his fifth ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal – third on clay. Musetti’s steady play throughout, in which he didn’t face any break points on his serve, included nine winners against just 11 unforced errors, compared to 18 winners and 44 unforced errors for Berrettini. Musetti converted three of 10 break-point chances and outpointed his opponent 67-51 to reach his second Monte-Carlo quarterfinal.

Musetti was asked afterward where he would rank his victory over Berrettini in terms of his season thus far. “No. 1. The difficulty of playing a friend, a teammate … this match on this special court for me and also for Matteo,” he said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “We share a lot of moments here in Monte-Carlo, where we live. We had a 50-50 crowd. It was everything even. Definitely, one of the toughest challenges for me of this season. I’m really grateful to be the winner today.”

• Musetti will face three-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who marched to an easy 6-1, 6-1 victory in 67 minutes over Portuguese No. 1 Nuno Borges on Court Rainier III Thursday evening. The Greek star entered his second-round match looking to become the second man to win four Monte-Carlo titles in the Open Era (behind Rafael Nadal‘s 11) and also to become the sixth man in the Open Era to reach five straight Monte-Carlo quarterfinals.

Tsitsipas struck 21 winners, converted six of seven break-point chances and outpointed Borges 62-40 en route to his 22nd career win at Monte-Carlo. It was also his 50th ATP Masters 1000 victory on clay of his career and he’s now through to his 25th ATP Masters 1000 last eight, the first since Paris last year.

“Most games were really close,” Tsitsipas said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “I felt most of the games were ending at the 40-30 score, there was a lot of action. I don’t think the score resembles the match. There was a lot more than the score shows. We both tried to push each other to the limit. He was maybe unable to take advantage of certain opportunities and I handled them much better than I expected.”

• Meanwhile, World No. 10 Alex de Minaur of Australia, seeded ninth, eliminated No. 9 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia, 6-2, 6-2, in only 72 minutes on Court Des Princes for his ATP Tour-leading 19th victory of the season. It was his first Top-20 win since the Paris Masters last fall and Thursday’s triumph ended a nine-match losing streak in Masters 1000 competition.

De Minaur hit 15 winners against 21 unforced errors, compared to nine winners and 27 unforced errors for Medvedev. He converted seven of 12 break points and outpointed the Russian No. 1 59-39 to reach back-to-back Monte-Carlo quarterfinals.

“We’ve obviously played each other many, many times and played each other on basically every surface,” de Minaur said during his on-court interview with ATP Media, after beating Medvedev for the fourth time in 11 meetings. “I tried to draw a lot on our last match on clay [2024] at Roland-Garros and see what worked for me. I thought I executed really well. I just had a slight lapse in concentration. Apart from that, I thought I was very smart and tactically played the right way today.

“Look, think more than anything, I’m finally finding my feet on the clay. It’s taken me a while in my career. I finally understand what I need to do to be effective on this surface. You know, I can be dangerous on this surface, as well. I’m very happy to play here. I’ve started the clay swing with some good matches and all my energy and effort goes out to tomorrow.” 

• On Friday, de Minaur will face No. 15 seed Grigor Dimitrov. The World No. 18 from Bulgaria defeated No. 32 Alejandro Tabilo of Chile, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, in a hour and 56 minutes on Court Des Princes Thursday evening. Dimitrov, who struck 28 winners and converted five of 16 break points, won on his fifth match-point opportunity. He outpointed Tabilo 98-76.

Thursday’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters results

Friday’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters order of play

By the numbers

• Arthur Fils is the third Frenchman to advance to the quarterfinals of the first three Masters 1000 events of the season (Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo), following Yannik Noah (1986) and Gaël Monfils (2016).

• With his win over Daniel Altmaier on Thursday, Carlos Alcaraz is now tied for fifth-most quarterfinals reached at the Masters 1000 level among Spaniards with Tommy Robredo (15). The all-time leader is Rafael Nadal (99) followed by David Ferrer (45).

• Alex de Minaur is just the third Australian player to reach multiple Monte-Carlo quarterfinals in the Open Era, following Dick Crealy and John Alexander.

“Quotable …”

“Of course that’s my last time here in Monte-Carlo, but I want to keep all the memories I have. I play many great tournaments here. It was one of the best tournaments I could play, especially on center court.

“I’m really, really happy with the way I played here, and of course I want to thank the tournament for the wildcard. Now it’s another tournament I left, but that’s tennis. That’s life.”

– French wild card Richard Gasquet, during his post-match news conference Wednesday after being eliminated by German qualifier Daniel Altmaier, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2. The 39-year-old Gasquet previously has announced he will retire from pro tennis after this year’s French Open in May.

 

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