ATP Match of the Year, No. 2: Arthur Fils sets a new bar for himself in delirious win over Jaume Munar

This week, Steve Tignor will reveal his ATP Matches of the Year, and the TENNIS.com editors will reveal our ATP Players of the Year. The WTA editions will begin Monday, December 8.

After four hours and 25 minutes of pure cinema in Suzanne Lenglen, all Arthur Fils could do was scream.

“This is Paris, right?” he cried to 15,000 of his fellow Frenchmen and women, who had just pushed, pulled, cheered, and serenaded him to the most thrilling victory of his young career. The crowd responded, deliriously, in the affirmative.

Fils was just 20 years old, but the moment felt like it had been a long time coming for him. A superlative athlete who was already being touted as the future of French tennis by his mid-teens, he had quickly collapsed under those expectations in his first two trips to Roland Garros, losing in the opening round both times. But in early 2025, the 20-year-old’s results had begun to catch up to his talent.

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In March, he reached the quarterfinals in Indian Wells and Miami. In April, he pushed Carlos Alcaraz to three sets in Monte Carlo and made the semifinals in Barcelona. Tennis fans savored the thought of this version of Fils playing on his home turf in Paris. When he landed in same section of the draw as top seed Jannik Sinner, the anticipation ratcheted up even more.

First, though, he had to make it through a deceptively difficult second-rounder against Jaume Munar. The 28-year-old Spaniard knew all about living up to expectations; once upon a time, he had been seen as a possible successor to Rafael Nadal. While that obviously didn’t pan out,  Munar had finally grown comfortable with his own game after a decade on tour, and would finish 2025 at a career-high No. 36.

The atmosphere was electric as these two walked into Lenglen on a sunny afternoon, and the pro-Fils chants started early. For two sets, the fans could hardly have asked for more. Fils and Munar put on a lively, feisty, highly physical all-court duel, and the Frenchman won each set in a tiebreaker.

Then, in a matter of minutes, the bottom fell out for Fils. He lost 10 straight games; by the time he had surrendered the fourth set 6-0, he was struggling to move. Fils blamed a back injury, but Munar wasn’t buying it. “Everyone knows his timeout was due to cramps,” he said.

Whatever the ailment, Fils’ descent continued into the fifth. When he went down 1-3, he bashed a ball into the stadium’s upper deck.

Did that moment of rage-venting save him? Fils was a new man after that. In the next game, he wore Munar down with corner-to-corner forehands, as he had early on, and leveled the set at 3-3. From there, it was a battle of the good Fils versus the gassed Fils. The good version drilled fearless forehand winners and flapped his arms for more noise from the crowd. The gassed version had trouble standing up. When he did, he was liable to send an overhead careening toward the stands.

Serving at 4-4, the gassed Fils went down 0-40. But the good Fils got off the mat, threw in a serve and volley, and cranked up the forehand machine one last time. He saved a break point with a blazing forehand winner, and broke with another. That—and some helpful hissing of his opponent from the fans—was just enough to get him over the finish line. Fils won the last point with a net-cord that set up his 69th and final winner.

He set a new bar for himself—as a player, a fighter, and a performer—with this win.

Serving at 4-4, the gassed Fils went down 0-40. But the good Fils got off the mat, threw in a serve and volley, and cranked up the forehand machine one last time. He saved a break point with a blazing forehand winner, and broke with another. That—and some helpful hissing of his opponent from the fans—was just enough to get him over the finish line. Fils won the last point with a net-cord that set up his 69th and final winner.

Afterward, Munar called the scene a “circus” and the crowd “annoying.” Fils, not surprisingly, had a different take.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “Never felt like this…It’s one of the best courts of the world if it’s not the best one. The crowd really push me to win this match.”

“This is my best match of all time,” he said of his 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 2-6, 0-6, 6-4 win.

Did the crowd push Fils a little too far? The back issue he cited turned out to be real, and worse than he believed. He was forced to withdraw from the tournament before his next match, and he would play just one event the rest of the year.

Hopefully, Fils will be back in 2026 and beyond. He set a new bar for himself—as a player, a fighter, and a performer—with this win.