Qualified from the sidelines
Arthur Fils did not need to win a point in Paris to book his first ATP Finals. Frances Tiafoe lost to Quentin Halys in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters earlier today, and according to RMC Sport that result locked in Fils’s spot in Turin.
Tiafoe was provisionally eighth in the Race to Turin before the match. Fils sits seventh, and with the American’s chance gone, the Frenchman is officially in the field. His own second-round match, against qualifier Tomas Machac, is scheduled as the last of the evening session on Centre Court, after Carlos Alcaraz.
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A French drought ends
RMC notes that it is the first time since 2016 that a Frenchman will play the season-ending event, a gap of ten years. Fils arrives in Paris as the French number one, having retired from his quarterfinal in Basel last Friday, and he now has his Turin ticket in hand before his first ball at Bercy.
The wider picture in Paris
It was a busy day for the home players. Halys saved four match points to beat Tiafoe. Arthur Rinderknech beat qualifier Mattia Bellucci 6-4, 6-1 and will face third seed Ben Shelton on Thursday for a place in the quarterfinals. Alexander Zverev, newly world number one, was due on court after Halys’s match for his first outing in that role, against Lorenzo Musetti.
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