“Pain, pain, bothering me, I can’t explain anything”: Fils withdraws from Roland-Garros, ending a career-best clay swing
The 21-year-old French No. 1, who reached the world’s top 10 for the first time last month, has withdrawn from his home Grand Slam after persistent pain in the back-and-hip area. The injury is not the same as the one that defined his 2025 season, he says.
Arthur Fils, 2026 | © Alterphotos / PsNewz
Arthur Fils has withdrawn from Roland-Garros, on Saturday in a brief press conference held in the middle of the afternoon. The 21-year-old French No. 1, one of the best players of the season (World No.5 at the Race), announced he would not be playing his home Grand Slam after persistent pain in the back-and-hip area that had forced him to retire from his opening match in Rome two weeks ago.
The pain, he said, is not the same injury that wrote off most of his 2025 season – but he is not willing to repeat the mistake of that year, when a premature return to competition cost him the rest of the season, he highlighted.
“It’s just pain, and pain, and pain, bothering me,” Fils said. “If it was the last tournament of my life, I would have played. But I have 10 more years, 15 more years. I can’t keep making the same mistake.”
“It was bothering me a lot. I didn’t want to take any risk in Rome,” Fils said on Friday. “Then I did some examinations, and there was still a lot of pain – so I wasn’t able to practise for the last two weeks. The practice today was my first proper session with points since Rome.”
I don’t know if it’s the lower back, the hip, or the psoas. I don’t know. I can’t say more than that right now, because I don’t even know myself
The area of the pain, he said, remains uncertain. “It’s definitely not the same as last year,” Fils said. “After that, I don’t know if it’s the lower back, the hip, or the psoas. I don’t know – it’s this area that’s been bothering me for a couple of weeks. I can’t say more than that right now, because I don’t even know myself.”
Fils decided to withdraw one hour after Saturday’s practice with Jiří Lehecka. The decision, he said, had been building since the start of the week.
“I saw it coming. I did everything to be ready to play. But the question is simple: if you don’t train for two weeks, when you come back you still feel a bit of pain. After that, it becomes pretty straightforward – you think it through and you ask yourself, Arthur, are you ready to go far in this tournament? Is your goal just to get through one round or two?”
If it was the last tournament of my career…
He had been hitting well in the Saturday session, by his own description and that of those watching. But the pain had not lifted.If it was the last tournament of my career
“You can’t keep it up for three hours. If we were talking about two more minutes, fine. If it was the last tournament of my career, I would have played. Imagine I’m in pain after 20 minutes and have to play five sets – then the next day, after one rest day, I have to play five more. It would never hold up. That’s why we talked with the team after practice. We told ourselves it was a shame – I was hitting well —– but it wasn’t possible.”
The mood, despite the disappointment, was settled. “No, it’s fine. It’s okay,” Fils said when asked about his state of mind. “I’m a little bit hurt. I’ll try to do good work to be ready for the grass season. It’s not serious.”
9-1 on clay in 2026
Fils arrived in Rome two weeks ago in the best form of his career. He had under is belt a Doha final, an Indian Wells quarter-final, a Miami semi-final, a Barcelona title (beating Andrey Rublev in the final), and a Madrid semi-final lost to Jannik Sinner.
On clay across the previous twelve months, he was 9-1 – second only to Sinner among the entire field. The Madrid run had ended on 4 May. He was, on paper, the second-best clay-court player on the men’s tour in 2026, and his home Slam was three weeks away.
The Rome retirement on 9 May ended that arc abruptly. Fils retired from his opening match against the Italian qualifier Andrea Pellegrino, trailing 4-0 after just twenty-something minutes, citing pain in his hip that had started in the second game and had not responded to in-match treatment. Speaking to L’Équipe immediately afterwards, he said he had stopped to avoid taking any risk before Roland-Garros. Tests followed that weekend, and on Monday 11 May Fils announced on social media that everything was clear. He said he was already back training for Paris. This would not hold
