dpArthur Fils‘ luck with injuries just keeps on getting worse. His Swiss Indoors campaign has come to an abrupt end as he was forced to retire against Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals. Trailing 6-2, 2-0, Fils opted to retire, and it was suspected that lower back pain was the reason behind his decision. This withdrawal comes just days before the Paris Masters and could even affect his chances of qualifying for the ATP Finals.
Fils was the inferior player from the get-go as Fritz took the early lead and never let go of it. The American gained three breaks of serve in the opening set and got another in the second set before Fils retired. The Frenchman’s physical condition deteriorated in the first set, and he had to take a medical timeout while trailing 5-2. Things only got worse in the second set, and thus Fils pulled out of the match. While it felt that back problems had come back to haunt him, he later gave a different reason for his withdrawal.
“I’m going to go back to Paris for exams, talk to my team, we’ll see what we’re going to do for the rest of the season depending on the exams,” he said in the post-match press conference. “I felt a little pain in my leg on a trip at the very beginning of the match and it didn’t go away. I asked for a medical time-out but it didn’t improve so I made the decision to stop.”
The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for Fils, as it is the business end of the season. He is one of the many players who are in contention to qualify for the ATP Finals. It will be a major blow for him if he has to miss the Paris Masters because of this injury, as it may ruin his chances of playing the year-end tournament in Turin.
