Forehand finesse: Fils’ shot-making during triumphant Tokyo run in numbers
Arthur Fils downed countryman Ugo Humbert in the Tokyo Final to lift the Japan Open trophy
(Imago / Panoramic)
Arthur Fils claimed his second ATP 500 trophy for the 2024 season when he overcame fellow Frenchman Ugo Humbert in the grueling final of the Japan Open Tennis Championships.
Fils and Humbert battled for three hours, five minutes at Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo in the title match on Tuesday, with the former staging a comeback to win 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-3.
He opened his campaign by knocking seed No 1 Taylor Fritz out (6-4, 3-6, 6-3). In the second round, he received a walkover against Italian Matteo Berrettini (6-7 (5)). The Frenchman battled past seed No 8 Ben Shelton (7-5, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2)) to reach the semi-finals, where he survived another close fight against Dane Holger Rune (7-6 (8), 7-6 (10)).
This was Fils’ second title-winning run for the season. In July, he bettered world No 2 Alexander Zverev in the Hamburg final to lift the German Open trophy.
Arthur Fils saved a championship point at Japan Open
In the Tokyo summit clash, the 20-year-old notably stared at defeat in the second set when Humbert created a championship point but the former produced a sublime backhand pass down the line to stay afloat.
The shot sent the crowd into a frenzy as the Frenchman rallied them to make some noise.
The backhand certainly came to Fils’ rescue on Tuesday but he fared better than anybody else on his shot-making with the forehand.
The Frenchman dominated the forehand quality leaderboard with a score of 9.02, surpassing Britain’s Jack Draper in second (8.56) and Holger Rune in third (8.29), as per an analysis run by TennisViz.
As per the TennisViz’s calculations, Fils’ quality behind the forehand reached the score of 9.0, up 1.2 points against his 52-week average.
He managed to land 86 percent of his forehand shots, showing a 4-percent improvement against the 52-week standard. His shot speed increased by one to 81 MPH, with the spin witnessing an upscale of 218 points to reach 3521 RPM.
The world No 24’s net clearance on the forehand dropped by 3 CM to 64, however, the accuracy (percentage of balls landed 1 metre from the sideline) shot up to 35 percent from 30 in the 52-week average.
Overall, Arthur Fils smashed 169 winner during his time on the court in Tokyo, with a staggering 58 of them coming against Ben Shelton in the quarter-finals.
The Frenchman’s right hand also contributed to his triumph with a total of 35 aces.
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