Arthur Fils has spent the past seven weeks away from professional tennis with an injury he refuses to name. He has refused to specify whether it was his hip, back, both, or something else. What he will say is that he knows exactly what it was, that it is behind him, and that he came here two weeks ago to train directly on Wimbledon grass with his coach Goran Ivanisevic, who is a champion on these courts in 2001. Tuesday’s first-round match against Belgian qualifier Raphaël Collignon will be his first competitive match since retiring in Rome in early May. 

The nature of the injury has been an ongoing question since Fils pulled out of Roland Garros before his first-round clash with Stan Wawrinka, a withdrawal that prevented him from playing in front of his home crowd. He has stuck firmly to his position. 

“I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you what it was. But where I am now, I’m very well, everything is fine. My body is fine, I’m at 100%,” he said on Saturday, speaking to the press ahead of Wimbledon. “I’m not blind, I know what it was, but everything’s fine now. All systems are go. It’s positive, it’s behind me.” 

Pressed on whether it was the hip, the back, both, or a combination, he was characteristically direct. “A mixture of everything!” When asked why he would not say more, his answer was equally plain. “Because I prefer to keep it to myself. Because otherwise, people talk, and it’s annoying.”

Arthur Fils had been in the form of his young career before Rome. A 22-7 season, a Barcelona Open title, a runner-up spot in Doha, and semi-final finishes in Miami and Madrid, capped off by a nine-match winning streak on clay, which ended only against Jannik Sinner. 

He missed the Australian Open as part of a phased return from the back injury which ruled him out for the most part of the last year, and had been developing a level of consistency his game had never known. Then he retired mid-match in his first round in Rome against Andrea Pellegrino, withdrew from Roland Garros a fortnight later, and disappeared from the tour entirely. He then pulled out from the Libema Open and the Halle Open, leaving him for Wimbledon with no competitive match under his belt in almost two years on grass. 

His confidence comes from the preparation that he has undertaken at the All England Club. Ivanisevic, as a member of the club by virtue of his 2001 title, was able to arrange training directly on the Wimbledon courts, giving Fils access to the exact conditions he will face in the draw. 

“He told me, ‘We’ll train directly at Wimbledon, it might be easier, on good grass.’ I wasn’t going to refuse. I’d played once or twice in the south of France to make sure everything was alright. Everything was fine. And then everything just fell into place,” Fils said. 

On Saturday, he practised against Casper Ruud. “I was moving well on the court. I was sliding well to the right, to the left. Everything is fine.” Two weeks of training at the venue itself, and his 2026 season has demonstrated that he knows a thing or two about coming back from an injury.

His career record on grass courts is 6-5, and his best Wimbledon performance was reaching the fourth round in 2024. He was defeated by Alex de Minaur in four sets. He has described his game as one that translates well to the surface: The flat, aggressive forehand, the strong serve, the natural aggression off both wings: these are qualities that reward on grass.

“It’s my comeback tournament, but of course I have expectations. I’m playing very, very well on grass. We’ve been training for two weeks. I feel good,” he said.

“I’m not here to be a mere figurehead. My goal is to get on the court and win matches,” Fils added. 

Even though it’s a comeback tournament, he has set his goals clear; he is not just here to make a participatory appearance. 

Fils eyes Turin qualification after injury-hit season

The underlying drive for Wimbledon is the Race to Turin. Arthur Fils had risen to fourth in the ATP Race to Turin with 1880 points after his semi-final effort in Madrid in early May, overtaking Daniil Medvedev and Ben Shelton in the rankings. His competitors have matched his points because of his injury and time off, but he still ranks in the top eight of the Race and needs to maintain this position for a chance at his inaugural Nitto ATP Finals in November. Currently, he is in seventh position, while Alex de Minaur is breathing down his neck with 1870  points.

“The goal is to go to Turin at the end of the year. I don’t know if I’ll succeed, but we’ll see,” he said. For a 21-year-old who spent eight months of 2025 on the sideline and returned this year to win a title, reach three further finals or semi-finals, and climb back towards the top twenty in the world, qualifying for Turin would complete a comeback that has already exceeded most expectations.

He has yet to play in either Grand Slam this season – opting out of the Australian Open and missing Roland Garros due to injury. Wimbledon, with 2000 ranking points on offer for the champion, represents a tremendous opportunity for him to take a lead in the race to Turin. 

He has already ruled out in advance answering the question of whether the body that cost him six weeks in the spring will survive two weeks at the All England Club. What he has said is that everything is fine. The first real test of whether any of that is true will come on Tuesday against Collignon.