Arthur Fils demonstrated his top-seed credentials at this year’s Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM on Wednesday when he dispatched Flavio Cobolli 4-1, 4-2, 4-2 in 59 minutes.
The Frenchman came out firing his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with the Italian, outmanoeuvring Cobolli with his weight and depth of shot to improve to 2-0 in Green Group play. Fils undertook the ‘SIU’ celebration, associated with football star Cristiano Ronaldo, following his win.
“I played very nice today,” said Fils. “I served very good, and I was moving well on the court, so I am very happy about it. Tomorrow I have a good match against a great opponent. He already beat me once this year, so let’s see what I can do.”
A very high-level performance 👏
Arthur Fils puts on a show @nextgenfinals 📈#PerformanceRating combines #InAttack, #ConversionScore, #StealScore, and #ShotQuality to measure a player’s performance over the course of a match#TennisInsights | @atptour |@nextgenfinals pic.twitter.com/YeQDSHsxNY
— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) November 29, 2023
Fils, who defeated Luca Nardi in five sets in his opening match, will meet Dominic Stricker in his final round-robin clash. Stricker and Cobolli both hold 1-1 records going into their final matches. Italian Cobolli faces countryman Nardi, who is 0-2, on Thursday.
Fils is aiming to become the sixth champion at the 21-and-under event, joining Top 10 stars Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas
Earlier this year the 19-year-old Fils lifted his maiden tour-level title in Lyon, while he reached the title match in Antwerp. He is playing at a career-high No. 36 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings this week.
Physicality Index Insights
Cobolli was unable to push Fils into the red zone, making him perform a high percentage of explosive movements. In this match, Cobolli did all of the fast and intense movements, accumulating 72% more high speed distance than Fils. Fils was able to keep his Physicality Index way below his season average of 7.4. It was actually his lowest Physicality Index rating of the entire season, only reaching a 5.3. This was largely due in part to Fils being in attack over one-third of the points, and keeping the points short (avg. rally length 3.5).