Justine Henin expects ‘physical battle’ between Arthur Fils and Carlos Alcaraz at Monte Carlo Masters

Carlos Alcaraz is bidding to win his first Monte Carlo Masters and will be locking horns with Arthur Fils in the quarterfinals.

Justine Henin expects ‘physical battle’ between Arthur Fils and Carlos Alcaraz at Monte Carlo Masters

Carlos Alcaraz, Arthur Fils (Image via Carlos Alcaraz's X handle, Jose Morgado)

Carlos Alcaraz will be clashing with Arthur Fils for the very first time in his career. They are pitted against each other in the quarterfinals of the Monte-Carlo Masters, scheduled on Friday (April 11).

Alcaraz has already established himself as a player bound for greatness, for at 21, he has lifted four Grand Slam titles. Fils, the 20-year-old and the winner of three ATP titles has made it to back-to-back quarterfinals of Masters 1000 events.

Before reaching the last eight in Monte-Carlo, the Frenchman was defeated by Daniil Medvedev and by eventual winner Jakub Mensik in the Indian Wells and the Miami Open quarterfinals, respectively. And this made the 12th seed the only player in 2025 to progress to the quarterfinals of all three Masters 1000 events.

Mensik has not yet advanced to the semifinals of a Masters 1000 event and to do that in Monte Carlo, he will have to go past Alcaraz, who is the favorite to win the tournament. Former World No.1 Justine Henin, who also called Alcaraz the favorite to win the match against Fils, said she is expecting nothing less than a high level of tennis between the two youngsters.

It will be a first clash between the two men, but it’s true that, compared to what we’ve seen from Arthur Fils since the start of this tournament and his match today against [Andrey] Rublev, where he was very impressive, we want to believe in a very high-level clash, a physical battle. We can certainly expect something intense. There will be excitement around this match, and we hope it will live up to our expectations, but we can never predict it.

Justine Henin told Eurosport

Prior to setting up the clash with Alcaraz, Fils knocked out 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters champion Andrey Rublev in the previous round. Alcaraz, on the other hand, dropped a set against his first-round opponent Francisco Cerundolo, before making a dominating comeback to progress to the next round where he breezed past Daniel Altmaier.

Carlos Alcaraz has adapted well on clay after the hard court swing

Carlos Alcaraz has made his second appearance at the Monte-Carlo Masters following the 2022 season when he lost his first match to Sebastian Korda. In the last two seasons, he skipped the tournament due to injuries. Before starting his campaign, he had a week to prepare for the clay swing, and for it, he was just grateful.

Carlos Alcaraz Monte Carlo Masters 2025
Carlos Alcaraz (via Instagram/ Carlos Alcaraz)

This is the first time on clay that I have had one week, or a week-and-a-half to prepare for this tournament. It is a process just to keep going every day and try and get better and better. The first round was a bit tricky for me, struggling a little bit with the game. And I think today I just felt much better. Hopefully, when you are in the quarter-final it gets better and I feel much better.

Carlos Alcaraz told Tennis Channel

Prior to reaching the quarterfinals in The Principality, Alcaraz suffered a shock opening-round exit at the Miami Open as veteran David Goffin beat him in three sets. He has now entered the clay swing without winning a title in Sunshine Double for the first time since 2021.

Alcaraz is bidding to win his second title of the season following the Rotterdam Open. Last year on the clay swing, Alcaraz lifted his career’s first French Open by beating Alexander Zverev in five sets. He then fell short of his first Olympic gold medal as Novak Djokovic won his career’s first with a straight-set win in the final he played against the World No.3.