Arthur Fils has revealed he has used the \u201cvery bad\u201d criticism he has faced this year as motivation after his triumph at the 2026 Cincinnati Open.<\/p>\n
The French star defeated Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 in the final of the prestigious tournament in Mason, Ohio on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Fils\u2019 victory saw him collect his maiden Masters 1000 title, which is the fifth and biggest ATP Tour title of his career to date.<\/p>\n
Following the final, Fils<\/a> made a strong statement by writing \u201cWho\u2019s gonna talk now?\u201d on the camera lens.<\/p>\n In his press conference, Fils explained why he wrote that message.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause people were talking very bad. You know, in France, it\u2019s very easy sometimes\u2026 to criticise,\u201d the 22-year-old said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to criticise, and I didn\u2019t play the French Open. I lost early in Washington, and then people think that I\u2019m done, and I don\u2019t know how to play tennis.<\/p>\n ATP Rankings: Arthur Fils and Frances Tiafoe in Tour Finals contention, Carlos Alcaraz drops, Andrey Rublev hits new low<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Arthur Fils and Frances Tiafoe\u2019s ranking points and prize money after curious Cincinnati Open final<\/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 \u201cBut here we are, I got the title, and I think no one\u2019s going to talk now.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to French media, Fils addressed whether the criticism affects him.<\/p>\n \u201cTo say it affects me is a bit of an exaggeration. But it\u2019s certainly never pleasant when you come across it,\u201d Fils replied.<\/p>\n \u201cBut actually, I use it as motivation. When things get tough, I tell myself I have no choice.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I do, I do for myself, for my team, but also to show them they\u2019re wrong. It\u2019s so easy to criticise.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I didn\u2019t play at Roland Garros or when I lost in the first round in Washington, it was as if I\u2019d forgotten how to play tennis, according to some people.\u201d<\/p>\n Fils\u2019 run in Cincinnati lifted him 10 places to a new career-high ranking of world No 11.<\/p>\n The Frenchman now holds an excellent 32-10 (76.2%) record in 2026.<\/p>\n Asked if the serious back injury he suffered in 2025 had given him a different perspective, Fils said: \u201cYes, I agree. I understood quite a few things thanks to that injury.<\/p>\n \u201cIt certainly hurt me a lot. But all my loved ones encouraged me to come back stronger, to approach matches in a slightly different way. To try to be more thoughtful, to make the right choices, to make sacrifices. To not play like a child, in fact.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now, we can see that this work is paying off. But it\u2019s only the beginning. This title isn\u2019t an end in itself, but it\u2019s not bad.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Carlos Alcaraz warned his US Open comeback is \u2018not the smartest thing\u2019 by Grand Slam finalist<\/a> The post Arthur Fils explains his defiant Cincinnati Open statement after \u2018very bad\u2019\u00a0criticism<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arthur Fils has revealed he has used the \u201cvery bad\u201d criticism he has faced this year as motivation after his triumph at the 2026 Cincinnati Open. The French star defeated Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 in the final of the prestigious tournament in Mason, Ohio on Sunday. Fils\u2019 victory saw him collect his maiden Masters […]<\/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-2685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685","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=2685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h2>\n
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