- The star was forced to pull out of his third round match at Roland Garros in May
- He had aimed to play in Wimbledon but he has now had to withdraw from event
- A rival suggested the star had cramps rather than the stress fracture in his back
France’s No 1 ranked tennis star has pulled out of Wimbledon through injury – having been accused by a rival of not actually being injured.
England’s premier competition will kick off on June 30, with the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic hoping for success as Alcaraz looks to defend his title.
It will draw competitors from all around the world as nations pin their hopes on their top stars – but France will have to look elsewhere in the men’s singles after Arthur Fils pulled out of the competition.
Fils had picked up an injury last month in the French Open, withdrawing from his third round match at Roland Garos against Andrey Rublev because of a stress fracture in his back.
The 21-year-old had overcome back issues to beat Jaume Munar in a four-hour and 25-minute match earlier in the week, ripping his shirt off in celebration. The next round, though, was a step too far.
And he has been unable to recover in time for Wimbledon, now officially pulling out of the tournament in a major blow to his season.
Fils, who is currently ranked No 15 in the world, had said: ‘We’re going to try to see if I can be ready for Wimbledon. It’s a big question mark. After that, I’m 20, I still have time on the tour, it’s not the time to rush.
‘On the contrary, if I can take a little more time to recover well and be ready to play the whole season on hard courts and the end of the year, that’s not bad.’
Spaniard Munar had accused his opponent of not actually being injured, but suffering with cramps. That was before Fils has confirmed he had been struggling with a stress fracture.
‘I had some issue with the back since a long time, and during the match against Munar it gets worse,’ he said. ‘Then I did some exams. The exams were not good at all. Got some stress fracture.
‘Yeah, whatever, we decide with the team it was better to stop now, because if I’m stopping now, I could stop for only four to six weeks. If I was pushing myself too much, I would probably stop for a couple of months.’
‘It’s the lower back. I got this issue a couple of times already when I was young. Yeah, L-5. So yeah, I got some issues like this in the past already.’
He added: ‘It’s an injury that happens quite often when you are a child. It’s a stress fracture injury.
‘It happened to me twice. I had to wear a back brace. Then it healed. But also, my lower back is arched, so then I had a bone marrow edema. It’s coming back right now. So I have to find a way to cure that and to get past that.’
