Arthur Fils is in the main draw of the Kinoshita Group Japan Open, the ATP 500 in Tokyo he won in 2024, after taking the long way in. The Frenchman beat Kamil Majchrzak 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 on Tuesday in the final round of qualifying, a day after coming from a set down to beat Martin Damm 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.

His reward is an all-French first round against Luca Van Assche on Wednesday, third on the Colosseum and not before 4pm local time, 9am CEST. The winner meets either Kei Nishikori, who has a wildcard, or the second seed Frances Tiafoe, whom Fils beat in the Cincinnati final in August.

How he ended up in qualifying

Fils should not have needed the extra matches. The tournament's entry list says he was scheduled to play qualifying "due to player's administrative issues regarding the entry process". Punto de Break, which reported the problem on 3 September, said the deadline appeared to have passed while he was still deciding between Tokyo and the China Open in Beijing, played the same week. The three main-draw wildcards went to Japanese players: Sho Shimabukuro, Rei Sakamoto and Nishikori.

That made Fils the top seed in qualifying, seeded on the No. 11 ranking he held when the field was set. According to the tennis statistics account Jeu, Set et Maths, he was the highest-ranked player to enter an ATP qualifying draw in its available records, which date back to 2007.

By the time he walked on court he was higher still. The ATP rankings published on Monday put him ninth, the first top-10 ranking of his career, level on 3,150 points with Alex de Minaur in 10th and two places above Novak Djokovic, who dropped out of the top 10 this month.

Four weeks after New York

Tokyo came four weeks after the US Open, where the momentum from Cincinnati stopped abruptly. Eight days after beating Tiafoe 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 for his first Masters 1000 title, Fils lost 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-1, 6-4 to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round in New York, having won all five of their previous meetings.

Tsitsipas came through Tokyo qualifying too, without dropping a set, and plays Tomás Martín Etcheverry in the same section of the draw. A rematch is possible in the quarter-finals.

Tokyo has kinder memories for Fils. In 2024 he beat four top-20 players on the way to the title, including Taylor Fritz and Holger Rune, and saved a championship point against Ugo Humbert in the final before winning 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-3. Carlos Alcaraz won the 2025 edition and is the top seed this year.

There is more at stake than the trophy. Fils is seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, the standings that decide who qualifies for the eight-man ATP Finals in November, so every round he wins this week counts beyond Tokyo.