Six games to love in the set that mattered
Frances Tiafoe won five games in the last two sets combined. Arthur Fils won the other thirteen. That was the shape of the Cincinnati final, a 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 win that hands the 22-year-old Frenchman the first Masters 1000 title of his career.
The middle set was the only wobble. Tiafoe took it back at the same 6-3 scoreline and looked, briefly, like the man in charge. Then the third arrived and Fils simply took the racquet out of his hands.
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One set dropped all week
Fils reached the final having lost a single set in the entire tournament. World No. 10 Flavio Cobolli lasted 1h07 in the semi-final, 6-3, 6-4, barely enough time for the Frenchman to break a sweat.
Tiafoe arrived from the other half after a far longer grind against Brandon Nakashima. The two had met once before, Miami in 2025, three sets, Fils again. His 2026 had been a mess until now, chopped up by a long injury layoff. The timing of this one is hard to beat.
A ranking he has never held
The title lifts Fils to a career-high ATP ranking. French names have been scarce in Masters 1000 finals for years, scarcer still on the winning side of one, which makes what he did in Ohio worth more than the points attached to it.
The US Open is next. He walks into Flushing Meadows as a player nobody in the draw wants early.
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