Arthur Fils of France beat fourth seed Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain 6-3 6-4 in a second-round match of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier on Wednesday. The 18-year-old Frenchman, ranked 164th in the world and a wild card entrant to the tournament, thus continued his giant-killing act after his win over compatriot Richard Gasquet in the first round.
Arthur Fils has showed a lot of promise in his last two matches and it remains to be seen whether he is able to fulfill his enormous potential. Let’s dissect the match.
How Arthur Fils Defeated Roberto Bautista Agut
#1. Both players struggled to hold serve in the first set:
The match started in an unusual manner as the two players exchanged breaks in the first four games. However, Fils was then able to hold his serve in the fifth game and broke the Spaniard again to go 4-2 up.
The Frenchman then held his serve for the remainder of the set to win it. Fils’ forehand helped him dominate a lot of rallies, as his crosscourt forehand and inside-out forehand did not give Bautista-Agut much breathing space.
Moreover, Fils also kept punishing the Spaniard’s second serve over the course of the match, but the latter could not break him after the third game of the first set.
#2. Fils dominated with his forehand to win the second set, too:
Fils made a flying start to the second set by breaking Bautista-Agut in the first game. He then held his serve to go 2-0 up and maintained the lead for the remainder of the match. Fils kept hitting a few blistering forehand winners and also hit a few nice approaches before going forward to finish points with overhead smashes.
Bautista-Agut, meanwhile, could win only 41% of the points on his second serve in the match, while Fils managed a more respectable 57%. The Spaniard also face eight break points in the match and could save only half of them.
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