France's top tennis player Arthur Fils pulled out of the 2026 French Open on Saturday, citing the same hip injury that forced him to abandon his first second-round tie against Andrea Pellegrino at the Italian Open two weeks ago.
"It’s a shame," said the 21-year-old, who was seeded 17th and scheduled to play the 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka in the opening round.
"In Rome, I felt some discomfort in my hip, and I didn’t want to take any risks," Fils added. "After I had some tests done, everything seemed fine but I was still in pain and couldn’t train."
Fils, who was on the sidelines for eight months with a back issue after pulling out of his third-round match at last year's French Open, said: "It’s definitely not the same injury, but I don’t know exactly. I can’t explain it, there’s just pain. And it doesn’t go away when I’m on the court.
"If this were the last tournament of my life, I would have played, but I hope to have another 10 or 15 years ahead of me, so I don’t want to make the same mistakes again."
During the clay court swing of the ATP tour, Fils won the Barcelona Open and reached the semi-finals at the Madrid Masters 1000 – where he lost in straight sets to top seed Jannik Sinner.
"I did everything I could to be able to play," Fils added. "But if you haven't trained for two weeks and you're in pain when you start again, it's simple. You think it over and ask yourself: 'Do you want to go far or just play a couple of rounds?' I can't last three hours or five sets if after 20 minutes there's pain."
Sinner favourite for men's title
Sinner, who lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the 2025 men's final, enters the 2026 French Open as hot favourite in the absence of Alcaraz due to injury.
Last Sunday, Sinner won the Masters 1000 event in Rome, adding to his triumphs at the Masters tournaments in Madrid and Monte Carlo in April.
No one had achieved that feat since Rafael Nadal in 2010. The Spaniard arrived in Paris and won a fifth French Open title.
Sinner starts his tilt for a first French Open crown against the unseeded Frenchman Clément Tabur – who was given an invitation into the main draw by the French Tennis Federation, which organises the season's second Grand Slam tournament.
Should Sinner brandish the Coupe des Mousquetaires on 7 June after winning the men's singles final, he will become the seventh man to have won crowns at the four Grand Slam tournaments in Melbourne, Paris, London and New York since tennis was opened to professional players in 1968.
Three-time French Open champion Novak Djokovic stands in that group along with Nadal, Alcaraz, Roger Federer, André Agassi and Rod Laver.
Djokovic, 38, will start his bid for a record-extending 25th Grand Slam singles title against the Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
Second seed Zverev faces another Frenchman in the shape of Benjamin Bonzi.
