Arthur Fils has withdrawn from the Paris Masters and that means the Frenchman's rough 2025 season is officially over.
In late May, Fils edged out Jaume Munar in a five-set French Open second-round clash despite struggling with a back issue. Two days later, the Frenchman - who achieved a career-high ranking of No. 14 in April - announced he was pulling out of his third-round match due to a stress fracture in his back.
After receiving the diagnosis, Fils missed Wimbledon but tried to come back during the North American hard-court swing. In his first tournament back at the Toronto Masters, the former world No. 14 beat Pablo Carreno Busta before losing to Jiri Lehecka. While the 21-year-old played out two full matches in Toronto, he was still bothered by his back and he hasn't played since.
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The French star made three consecutive main draw appearances at the Paris Masters between 2022 and 2024. He picked up first-round exits in 2022 and 2023 before making the round-of-16 last year.
What exactly Fils said when revealing his back injury?
I had some issue with the back since a long time and during the match against Munar it [got] worse. Then I did some exams. The exams were not good at all. [I] got some stress fracture. What we decide with the team it was better to stop now, because if I'm stopping now, I could stop for only four to six weeks. If I was pushing myself too much, I would probably stop for a couple of months. This is not what we are trying to do, so [we] had to make a choice," the 21-year-old explained after withdrawing from the French Open.
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For Fils, the main thing right now is to fully recover for the 2026 season.
Before the injury, Fils made the quarterfinal at the Masters tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo. He was also a semifinalist in Barcelona.
