{"id":866007,"date":"2026-08-23T22:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/866007\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T22:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:50:12","slug":"tennis-atp-cincinnati-open-2026-fils-wins-the-trophy-against-tiafoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/866007\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis, ATP \u2013 Cincinnati Open 2026: Fils wins the trophy against Tiafoe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New world No.11<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fils will rise to a new career-high ranking of No. 11 in the world and No. 5 in the ATP Race, and becomes just the seventh French man to win an ATP Masters 1000 title \u2013 the first since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga\u2019s 2014 Toronto triumph, ending a 12-year wait. He joins Guy Forget (1991 Cincinnati, 1991 Paris), Cedric Pioline (2000 Monte-Carlo), Sebastien Grosjean (2001 Paris) and Tsonga (2008 Paris, 2014 Toronto) on that list, and at 22 becomes the youngest French Masters 1000 champion in the series\u2019 history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He is also only the second man born in 2004 or later to win a Masters 1000 title, after 2005-born Jakub Mensik at last year\u2019s Miami Open. The win also extends his head-to-head lead over Tiafoe to 2-0, following a three-set win at Miami last year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1900\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Artur_Fils_2026-1.jpg\" alt=\"Arthur Fils, Cincinnati 2026\" class=\"wp-image-859053\"  \/>Arthur Fils, Cincinnati 2026 | \u00a9 Jared Wickerham \/Wick Photography for Cincinnati Open<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fils raced out to a 3-0 lead in just seven minutes, breaking serve and holding twice more with four aces, and closed out the set 6-3 in under half an hour, dominating the shot-making with 13 winners to four and 62 percent of total points won.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tiafoe hit back immediately in the second, breaking on his third break point to lead 2-0 and looking suddenly far more aggressive and powerful than he had in the opener. He broke again for 5-1 and leveled the match by closing out the set 6-1, reversing the statistical picture almost entirely \u2013 66 percent of total points won, despite Fils actually landing more winners and more aces.<\/p>\n<p>Tiafoe\u2019s second defeat in Masters 1000 final<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fils broke immediately in the decider, winning a forehand-to-forehand battle on the deciding break point to lead 2-0, then doubled his advantage for 4-0 and held for 5-0, dominant now off the forehand and aggressive on the return. He had to work to close the match or a 6-0: Tiafoe saved the first match point with a forehand return by Fils that landed in the net, and the second with a backhand into the net, before a Tiafoe forehand sailed long on the third to hand Fils the title, 6-0 in the third.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1900\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Frances_Tiafoe_2026_Cincy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-858925\"  \/>During the 2026 Cincinnati Open at Lindner Family Tennis Center on Aug. 16, 2026 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Tom Brenner \/Wick Photography for Cincinnati Open)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Tiafoe, it is a second defeat in a Masters 1000 final, having also lost the 2024 Cincinnati final, to Jannik Sinner. He finishes the tournament with 37 match wins in 2026, the third-most on tour behind Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Playing what looked a flawless final set, Fils appears to be peaking at exactly the right moment, with the US Open just a week away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New world No.11 Fils will rise to a new career-high ranking of No. 11 in the world and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-866007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}