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Arthur Fils brought out Cristiano Ronaldo's iconic goal celebration after defeating fifth seed Flavio Cobolli at the Next Gen ATP Finals.
The Frenchman, who is the top seed in the tournament in Jeddah, won his second straight round-robin match with a 4-1, 4-2, 4-2 win over the Italian. Having won two out of two matches, he booked his place in the semifinals of the event. The teenager previously triumphed 2-4, 4-3(6), 4-2, 1-4, 4-2 over seventh seed Luca Nardi.
Fils celebrated his win over Cobolli by imitating Cristiano Ronaldo's iconic "Sii" celebration, which he produces every time he scores a goal.
Arthur Fils will play his final round-robin match against third seed Dominic Stricker. It will be the second encounter between the two, with the Frenchman winning their previous match 7-6(4), 7-6(4) in the first round of the Swiss Open in Gstaad.
A victory for the Frenchman will see him win the Green Group with three wins out of as many matches. The other fixture in the group will see an all-Italian clash between Flavio Cobolli and Luca Nardi.
The Red Group at the Next Gen ATP Finals has so far seen sixth seed Hamad Medjedovic win two matches out of two, while second seed Luca van Assche and eighth seed Abdullah Shelbayh have one win each. Sixth seed Alex Michelsen has lost both of his matches so far.
Arthur Fils has won 19 out of 36 matches in 2023
Arthur Fils has won 19 out of 36 matches so far in 2023, winning his maiden ATP title at the Lyon Open.
The Frenchman reached his maiden ATP 500 semifinal at the Hamburg European Open and also made it to the final of the European Open in Antwerp. His best performance at a Masters 1000 event was reaching the third round of the Shanghai Masters where he ousted higher-ranked Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Fils won his first-ever Grand Slam main draw match at the US Open, beating 24th seed Tallon Griekspoor in five sets. However, he was beaten by Matteo Arnaldi in the second round in a similar fashion. The Frenchman also played at the French Open and Wimbledon, suffering opening-round exits to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in both tournaments.
Fils started the 2023 season as the World No. 252 but his performance has seen him rise to a career-best ranking of 36.
