Fils, winner on withdrawal: "It's very difficult to win a match like that against a friend".
Arthur Fils pulled off a huge coup on Thursday. Up against an in-form Hubert Hurkacz, the Frenchman played an excellent game, taking full advantage of his opponent's poor form.
Quickly leading two sets to nil (7-6, 6-4), things started to get tougher when the Pole flew through the third set to get back on track (7-6, 6-4, 2-6).
Then, just as the two men were engaged in an epic tie-break in the 4th set, Hurkacz was injured, quite seriously it would seem. After trying to get back into the match, the world number 7 gave in and withdrew.
Asked about this rather unusual match, the world number 34 explained: "It's very difficult to win a match like that against a friend. We played very well in the fourth set. We had some very good points, and he was jumping all over the place.
I'm really sorry for him and I hope he recovers very quickly. I'm concentrating on the next round. I didn't really like the grass at first.
But I feel I'm playing well and I'm very happy to be in the third round. I'm going to do my best to get into the second week."