Fils upsets former champ Rublev to reach Monte-Carlo QFs

Arthur Fils continued his excellent start to 2025 at ATP Masters 1000 level on Thursday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, where the Frenchman downed 2023 titlist Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-3.

Fils produced a commanding all-around performance to cruise to victory in 62 minutes against Rublev on the Monte-Carlo Country Club’s Court des Princes. The 20-year-old won 81 per cent (21/26) of points behind his first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats, while he also converted five of nine break points he earned.

"From A to Z I was very focused," said Fils in French in his post-match press conference. "I made the right choices. I was implementing my tactics. I was feeling good. This was a really good match."

Poetry in motion 💫

Fils served up an incredible win over Rublev 6-2 6-3 🔥@ROLEXMCMASTERS | #RolexMonteCarloMasters pic.twitter.com/U3kcJKdrIq

— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 10, 2025

With his third-round victory, Fils matched his quarter-final runs in Indian Wells and Miami last month. He is the only player to have reached the last eight at all three ATP Masters 1000 events in 2025 so far. With Thursday’s victory, the 12th seed also levelled his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Rublev at 1-1, after he lost the pair’s maiden tour-level clash in January in Hong Kong.

Now up two spots to No. 13 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, Fils will on Friday take on second seed Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals. The Frenchman will be chasing his maiden semi-final appearance at a Masters 1000 event.

Another player with pedigree in Monte-Carlo, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, succeeded where Rublev failed in reaching the quarter-finals. The 2022 finalist overcame fifth seed Jack Draper 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4 to set a meeting with Alexei Popyrin.

Davidovich Fokina kept his cool after letting slip a 3-1 lead in the second set and then a match point at 6/5 in the subsequent tie-break. In a topsy-turvy decider featuring five breaks of serve, the Spaniard made no mistake with his next look at a match point, on return at 5-4, 30/40.

“Today I didn’t feel like I played my best tennis or gave my best mental strategy,” said Davidovich Fokina, who was visibly emotional after his two-hour, 47-minute win. “Today was a rollercoaster with my mind. I thought I was playing better, but my mind was telling me [otherwise]. I didn’t know how to control the emotions today.”

It was Davidovich Fokina’s third Top 10 win in Monte-Carlo, after he downed then-No. 10 Matteo Berrettini in 2021 and shocked then-World No. 1 Novak Djokovic during his 2022 final run.

Popyrin, who won his maiden Masters 1000 title in Montreal last year, saved two match points to upset last year's finalist Casper Ruud 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. The 25-year-old shook off the two match points on his serve at 3-5 in the decider, erasing the first at 30/40 with a forehand swinging volley winner. Moments later, Popyrin saved a second match point with an aggressive inside-out forehand that drew an error from Ruud's double-hander.

Ruud served for the match the following game, but was broken amidst Popyrin's stretch of tallying four consecutive games to win the two-hour, 57-minute battle.

The Australian is into the quarter-finals at a Masters 1000 for a third time and now holds a 3-4 record against Top 10 players on clay. Earlier this week, the World No. 27 defeated Top 20 stars Ugo Humbert and Frances Tiafoe.

Ruud has won 11 of his 12 tour-level titles on clay. The fourth-seeded Norwegian was aiming to lift his first trophy at Masters 1000 level this week.