Arthur Fils booked his spot in the last 16 of the Monte-Carlo Masters with a dominant win over Flavio Cobolli. The 12th seed needed just 70 minutes to beat the Italian 6-2 6-4. While he put on an impressive performance, Fils couldn’t match that energy in his post-match celebrations.
The Frenchman marked his victory by sending a ball flying into the crowd but it backfired when he realised he had “almost killed someone”. Fils continued to apologise for the horrible mistake, and chair umpire Richard Haigh added another blow as he dropped a brutal comment after witnessing the awkward celebration.
Fils is through to the third round of the Monte-Carlo Masters for the first time in his young career. The 20-year-old looked in control as he ended recent Bucharest champion Cobolli’s four-match winning streak for the loss of just six games.
But things quickly took a turn when he celebrated the win by hitting a ball into the air. Fils’ face dropped when he noticed he had misaimed the shot and he immediately put his arms up in apology.
After shaking hands with Cobolli, the 12th seed turned to the umpire and exclaimed: “I almost killed someone! Oh my god.”
And the chair official had a hilarious response. “That was the worst shot you hit in the whole match,” Haigh laughed.
Luckily, Fils agreed. But the three-time title winner confessed that he feared it would end badly for him.
“I was thinking about it that maybe if I touch someone, then I’m dead,” he added.
But Fils is safely through to the round of 16 here for the first time in his career after getting his first proper tour-level win over Cobolli. The pair previously met at the 2023 Next Gen Finals, which uses a fast-four scoring format, and Fils also won there.
The 20-year-old will now face either No. 7 seed Andrey Rublev, or his countryman Gael Monfils.
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