Arthur Fils has officially ended his 2025 season after pulling out of one of his home tournaments, the Paris Masters. The Frenchman had a strong start to the season, making three consecutive Masters 1000 quarter-finals and reaching a career-high ranking of No. 14 in the world.
But he picked up a back injury during a five-set victory over Jaume Munar at the French Open in May – an injury Munar later suggested Fils had been faking. The 21-year-old subsequently withdrew from his next match in Paris and only played one more tournament for the rest of the season.
Fils beat Munar in a thrilling second-round match at Roland Garros. He looked down and out when he received an off-court medical timeout before the fourth set, and then got bagelled.
Spurred on by adrenaline and lots of home crowd support, the French star stormed back from a break down in the final set to win 7-6 7-6 2-6 0-6 6-4 in four hours and 25 minutes, ripping his shirt off in celebration.
Munar, however, wasn’t convinced that Fils had actually been struggling. “He was seen by the doctor for a suspected back injury, but I’m convinced he suffered cramps. In that case, he couldn’t have been treated,” the Spaniard said.
“I wasn’t bothered by the break, but that’s the way it is. If you have a real injury, you don’t play the fifth set like he did.”
Munar was proven wrong when Fils was forced to pull out of the tournament before his third-round match, calling a press conference in which he confirmed that he had a stress fracture in his back.
He explained: “It’s an injury that happens quite often when you are a child. It’s a stress fracture injury. It happened to me twice. I had to wear a back brace. Then it healed.
“But also, my lower back is arched, so then I had a bone marrow edema. It’s coming back right now. So I have to find a way to cure that and to get past that.”
Fils was forced to miss Wimbledon due to the injury and made a short-lived comeback at the Canadian Open at the end of July. He lost in the second round of the singles event but reached the third round in doubles alongside Ben Shelton before they withdrew.
The 21-year-old has not played a match since, missing the US Open and Masters 1000 tournaments in Cincinnati and Shanghai.
When he withdrew from the US Open, Fils revealed that he felt a “warning sign” during his comeback in Toronto. “I’m working hard every day with my team to come back strong and be ready for this end of season,” he wrote at the time.
But the world No. 30’s season is now officially over, as he has withdrawn from next week’s Paris Masters, which would have been his last event of the year.
