Arthur Fils has described reaching the semi-finals at the 2026 Miami Open as \u201cthe best result in my life so far\u201d after winning an epic match against Tommy Paul.<\/p>\n
The French star prevailed 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 7-6(6) against world No 23 Paul in a thrilling quarter-final battle lasting two hours and 47 minutes on Stadium court.<\/p>\n
Neither player broke serve in the extremely tight contest, with Fils<\/a> saving six break points and Paul saving the only break point he faced \u2014 which was a match point in his final service game in the third set.<\/p>\n Fils trailed 2-6 in the deciding set tiebreak, and he fought off four consecutive Paul match points as he won six points in a row in a dramatic late turnaround.<\/p>\n In his on-court interview with Tennis TV, Fils was asked how much passion and emotion went into the match.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot, a lot. I step on the court, I was feeling a bit tired. [Paul] was playing very good, he was playing better than me in the first set,\u201d said the world No 31.<\/p>\n \u201cI just tried to find some energy, I tried to cheer a little bit for me because of the crowd was a bit for him. And then it was just a dog fight, and I never back down from a fight, so even if I lose, it\u2019s okay, I fought the best that I could.\u201d<\/p>\n Miami Open: Arthur Fils \u2018top 10\u2019 prediction made by tennis great amid resurgent run<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Miami Open: Frances Tiafoe sends \u2018suffering\u2019 message before Jannik Sinner showdown<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n The 21-year-old also spoke about his mentality.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, today I was just fighting, and even if [Paul] is my friend out of the court, when we are stepping on the court, it\u2019s either him or me, and well, I prefer when it\u2019s me (laughs). So yeah, I was just trying my best tonight, and I did good,\u201d Fils explained.<\/p>\n Fils\u2019 victory saw him advance to the semi-finals of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time, and he will play world No 22 Jiri Lehecka.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the best result I had in my life so far, so I will try to do my best in the semi, but now I\u2019m pretty happy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n In his press conference, Fils said: \u201cI just had to believe in myself. That was the most important.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he played very, very good tennis tonight, especially in the tiebreak until 6-2.<\/p>\n \u201cI just said, okay, look, point by point, if I\u2019m lucky, I get through. If not, it\u2019s okay, it\u2019s not a big deal. He was playing better than me. So, I just had to fight until the end and see.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels very good to be in the semis for the first time in my life. I\u2019m going to try my best. I have a tough match against Jiri. Let\u2019s see how I get through it. But it feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n Fils, who reached his career-high ranking of 14th in April 2025, started the Miami Open as the world No 31.<\/p>\n The Frenchman was a quarter-finalist at last year\u2019s edition of the event in Florida, and his run to the semi-finals this year means he has gained 200 points, which has increased his points total to 1,640.<\/p>\n This has lifted Fils to 28th position in the Live ATP Rankings, and he will jump to 22nd if he defeats Lehecka to reach the final.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Juan Martin del Potro issues candid verdict on who can rival Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner<\/a> The post Miami Open: What did Arthur Fils say after epic Tommy Paul win? And how has it affected his ranking?<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arthur Fils has described reaching the semi-finals at the 2026 Miami Open as \u201cthe best result in my life so far\u201d after winning an epic match against Tommy Paul. The French star prevailed 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 7-6(6) against world No 23 Paul in a thrilling quarter-final battle lasting two hours and 47 minutes on Stadium court. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Miami Open News<\/h2>\n
How has Fils\u2019 Miami Open run affected his ATP ranking?<\/h2>\n
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