Arthur Fils won the Cincinnati Masters on Sunday, beating American Frances Tiafoe in three sets to become the first French player to win a Masters 1000 title since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2014.
The 22-year-old sealed the win 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 to claim the biggest title of his career. The result lifts Fils to number 11 in the world rankings as he heads into the US Open, the season's final Grand Slam, carrying a new status into New York.
The Cincinnati Masters is traditionally one of the most important warm-up events before the US Open, drawing many of the sport's top-ranked players each August.
A dominant run through the draw
Fils arrived in Cincinnati fresh from a quarter-final run in Montreal in early August, and he carried that form through Ohio. He beat Australia's Alex De Minaur, the world number 8, and Italy's Flavio Cobolli, the world number 10, on his way to the final.
Against Tiafoe, ranked 23rd in the world, Fils raced through the opening set before what he described as a loss of concentration cost him the second. He regained control in the decider, relying on the weight of his groundstrokes to defeat a player who has reached the US Open semi-finals twice.
Fils said the win felt really good, and that it had been a crazy week.
Fifth Frenchman to win a Masters 1000
The victory makes Fils only the fifth French player in history to win a Masters 1000 title, and the first since Tsonga's triumph in Toronto in 2014. The Masters 1000 series sits just below the four Grand Slam tournaments in the men's tennis calendar, and only a handful of players manage to lift more than one such trophy in a career.
Fils, who is from the Essonne region south of Paris, said winning a title like this one meant a great deal to him after a lot of sacrifice. Hip and back injuries had kept him off the court for more than a year, forcing him to miss the sport's last four Grand Slam tournaments.
Looking ahead to the US Open
Fils now travels to New York as France's top-ranked man heading into the US Open, where he will be watched closely in a draw missing Italy's Jannik Sinner. The world number 1 has withdrawn because of a right knee injury.
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, ranked number 2 in the world, is also returning to Grand Slam action after more than four months out with a right wrist injury.
