It has been 43 years and four weeks since a French man won a grand slam. The odds that it’s about to be 43 years and five just got a whole lot shorter. Their last contender, Arthur Rinderknech, plays Novak Djokovic in the third round on Friday, but their great hope heading into the championships, Arthur Fils, lost to Matteo Berrettini on Centre Court, 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, in a performance that included a couple of flare-ups with the umpire and his own coaches, a lot of hot exclamations, exultations and exhalations – and an array of absolutely staggering shots.
They hadn’t seen Fils, who is 22, on Centre Court before. But then they haven’t seen much of him anywhere in the past 12 months, which he has mostly spent recovering from the stress fracture in his back he sustained at last year’s French Open. The eight-month break interrupted his rise up the rankings and put a hold on all the talk on the circuit about how he was one of the few young players around with the game to take on the duopoly of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
