Photo credit: Dimitar DILKOFF/AFP for Getty
Gazing into the red mist, Arthur Fils felt a tempest of trouble inside and out.
A biting back issue, stinging cramps and stubborn Jaume Munar holding a 3-1 lead in the final set all pained the 20-year-old Frenchman.
Plugging into the wall of sound from frenzied French fans singing the national anthem at one point, Fils won five of the last six games fighting off Munar 7-6(3), 7-6(4), 2-6, 0-6, 6-4 in a four hour, 24-minute epic.
The thriller electrified the packed Court Suzanne Lenglen, who energized Fils to win what he called “the best match of my life.”
“This is my best match of all time, I think. I have had big matches before, but I have never had a match like this in five sets before,” Fils said. “I have had some difficult matches in my, like, for example, in my first US Open, but this one is the best five-set match that I have ever played, and I could have lost this match. I was lucky.”
In an eruption of emotion, Fils shredded off his shirt, walked to the center of the court and unleashed a primal scream howling from the depth of his six-pack abs.
Crammed into every corner of Court Suzanne Lenglen, vocal French fans helped carry Fils across the finish line.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Roaring support echoing in his ears helped Fils win a match he believes he wouldn’t have finished on any other court on the planet.
“It's unbelievable. It's one of the best courts of the world if it's not the best one,” Fils said. “The crowd really push me to win this match, because I think if we are playing, I have already said it, if I was playing in Asia or whatever, not very sure that I could, first of all, finish the match.
“And to win it, almost zero percent of chances. I don't know. Today, with the crowd, with everything, I made it. A bit lucky, but it is what it is.”
World No. 57 Munar was achingly close to reaching the first major third round of his life.
Munar tried to press mute on the crowd interruption, but ripped French fans for intruding at crucial stages with an “absolute lack of respect.”
"Regarding the public, I am going to be very clear and I don't have to bite my tongue,” Munar told the Spanish media in comments published by MARCA. “I don't think it's bad that they encourage the other, that they scream…
“I'm already hardened and trained in that. In South America they are also very hard, what I do think is an absolute lack of respect, and it happens here a lot, is that they do not stop singing, interrupting, that they do not let the game progress. It's no longer that it affects or not personally, emotionally, so to speak, it's that they don't let the game go on.”
Spare a thought for Munar, who tore through 15 of 18 games at one point subduing both the athletic Fils and assertive French fans.
When Fils finally made an overhead extending a deuce game he broke into a wide grin and blew a kiss toward the sky.
Then the 14th-seeded Fils fired a forehand behind Munar holding for 5-4.
Serving at 4-5 in the decider, Munar let the crowd get to him. He paused several seconds before serving and falling into a love-30 hole.
On match point, Fils’ drive crashed into the tape, popped up and dribbled over on the Spaniard’s side.
Remarkably, Munar ran it down inches from net, stopped before touching net, but could only lift a loopy reply. Fils blocked a volley to seal a dramatic, emotional, painful and exhilarating victory.
Fans were screaming so loudly, Fils said he could not even hear his coach’s advice.
Asked about Munar’s crowd criticism, Fils said coping with rowdy crowds is not easy, but it is part of a pro’s job.
“Sometimes they're noisy, and sometimes it's a bit annoying for the opponent. But this is part of life,” Fils said. “You've got no choice. When I went to Brazil, I played against Fonseca, and I didn't complain about the public. You've got no choice.
“When you go to Australia, you play Australians. When you go to New York, you play Americans. People are screaming at you for three or four hours. What can you do about this? You can't complain about the public. This is just part of the game.”
On a day in which French hero Richard Gasquet, the all-team ATP wins leader among Frenchman (610 career victories) was bidding fans farewell on adjacent Court Philippe Chatrier, Fils showed a fierce finishing kick on Court Lenglen and summed it up simply.
“I'm tough, man,” Fils said prompting laughter in the interview room. “You know, with my education, my dad, my mom really push me when I was young and everything. So I know what I can go through.
“Okay. Today was a lot, but I knew that I was going to fight until the end. Okay. Maybe sometimes I'm gonna lose; sometimes I'm gonna win. But at least I'm fighting, and then we see.”
View this post on Instagram
How will the 20-year-old Frenchman, playing just his third French Open, recover facing hard-hitting Andrey Rublev in round three? Fils will need to be fully fit in what will be a baseline battle between two huge hitters armed with rocket launcher forehands.
“It's not going to be an easy match. He had a better ranking than me,” Fils said. “He was top 10, top 5. He's used to this type of matches in Grand Slams, and he's played a lot of five-set matches before. “I know it's going to be a complicated match. But once you go onto the court, you have a 50/50 chance of winning. He has his chances; I've got mine. We'll see how the dice rolls.”
The winner of the Fils vs. Rublev match will face world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, if seeds hold true to form, in the fourth round.
This thriller engaged French fans so thoroughly a few were still in battle mode even after it ended.
A grateful Fils tossed his sweat-soaked match shirts into the crowd where a man and woman in the front row waged a fierce tug of war fighting for that sweaty shirt as if it were the Shroud of Turin. The male fan, forgoing chivalry for a French Open relic, ultimately took it with one final tug then stashed the shirt beneath his own.