Madrid Open star gives X-rated interview after coach called him out mid-match | Tennis | Sport

Arthur Fils stormed back to get his maiden win at the Madrid Open on Friday, but he was made to work for it. The 21-year-old recently returned from a lengthy injury layoff and lifted his fourth career title in Barcelona last week, but had little time to prepare for the Masters 1000 in Madrid, and found himself in trouble against Ignacio Buse after dropping the first set.

The world No. 25 destroyed his racket after losing the hour-long first set, but took the second in a tiebreak to force a decider. The frustrations returned when he went an early break down in set three, but Fils later revealed that one of his coaches told him to “shut the f*** up”, and it seemed to do the trick as he stormed back to claim a 6-7(4) 7-6(3) 7-5 victory.

Fils later appeared on Tennis Channel, where he swore on air as he repeated his coach’s choice words of motivation, and joked that he didn’t want to receive a fine. “The first set was not unbelievable from my side, and then I started to get a bit mad and I started to talk with the team, and they told me, ‘Look, you’ve got to fight. It’s not going to be easy, you have to fight, man’,” he said.

The Frenchman couldn’t hold back his laughter as he prepared to share exactly what his fitness coach said at a crucial moment. “At one point, my fitness coach, in the third set, I got one break down, and I started to go crazy, and he told me… Okay, I’m going to say it, but I don’t want a fine,” he smiled.

“He told me, ‘Shut the f*** up’. And he tells me that, then I’m like, oh, I’m starting to get mad at him. And he tells me, ‘No, shut the f*** up!’” Presenter Prakash Amritraj was also in stitches and replied: “He was just keeping it real.”

Fils agreed, admitting it helped him focus on the task at hand. “For real. It helped me, actually it helped me. I started to be quiet and I started to think a bit more about the tennis, and was a bit better,” he grinned.

The 21st seed also had to learn to let go of his frustrations after losing the first set and whacking his racket on the court several times. Speaking to reporters after the match, he said: “I had to let it go, you know, because the frustration was building a lot at the end of the first set.

“It was a tough battle against a great opponent and I couldn’t find a way to win the first set. Whatever I was trying, I had this feeling that it was not really working. So I said, ‘You know what? Let go of the frustration, try to focus on your serve, into the second set, and let’s see’. And I played better and better, and so pretty happy with the way I finished the match.”

Fils has also taken plenty of confidence from his title win in Barcelona last weekend, though he admitted that deep run made it tough to adjust to the altitude in Madrid ahead of his opening match.

“Well, the confidence helped me, but then also, when you win a title, then you go through the whole week, and then you have two or three days to adapt into the other conditions, it’s not very easy,” he added. “Like, I could feel it on the court today, in the first part of the match, but it helped me for sure to get through the match.”

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