Five matches. Zero sets. One game in the last meeting.
That was the ledger Stefanos Tsitsipas dragged onto court on Monday night against Arthur Fils, the 22-year-old French 10th seed who had lifted his first Masters 1000 trophy in Cincinnati eight days earlier.
He walked off with a 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-1, 6-4 win that even he did not seem to trust.
“I’m speechless. I don’t know what to say. It’s an amazing start to the tournament,” Tsitsipas told the crowd.
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Fils served for a two-set lead
Ranked 11th in the world, Fils had looked to be closing the match out on schedule when he stepped up to serve for a two-set lead at 5-3.
He never got there. A double fault opened the door, Tsitsipas broke with a backhand up the line, and the Greek then dominated the tie-break 7-3. Fils won only one more game in the third set, and later in the fourth he smashed his racket for a code violation as the collapse deepened.
The Frenchman, blunt after the match, offered no real explanation, speaking to reporters in New York.
“I don’t really know. I don’t have the answer.”
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“Once the energy went down at the end of the second, and I never felt again a good energy.”
“At 5-3 I switched off. I messed up my service game a bit, and actually completely.”
“At my level, to do such a mistake is almost unprofessional.”
A Greek fighter from No. 88
Tsitsipas is a former world No. 3 and a two-time Grand Slam runner-up, both losses to Novak Djokovic, at the 2021 French Open and the 2023 Australian Open. After a back injury at last year’s US Open his ranking drifted, and earlier in 2026 he was down at No. 88.
Monday was his first top-20 win at Flushing Meadows, a tournament where he had never gone past the third round. UBITENNIS noted his previous top-20 scalp had come back in April, against Alexander Bublik in Madrid.
He put the turnaround down, in his own words, to giving up on the scoreline.
“Let go of expectations. I feel like we can get dragged with a lot of expectations. Carrying that heavy boat is not easy during a match, especially when the psychological game of a match like that is crucial.”
“I owe everything to letting go, not having any expectations, and just being a warrior, a Greek fighter.”
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Tsitsipas plays South African qualifier Lloyd Harris in the second round.
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