Silly question, but how do you cut a talent into ten? I read Arthur Fils’s interview on the 7.32 train, between Ottignies and Brussels, and I haven’t thought about anything else since.
Arthur Fils is 22, world number 10, won the Cincinnati Masters 1000 in August and is the headliner at the European Open this week. He was asked whether he wants to become an action film actor after his career. About Jean-Claude Van Damme, he said: “If one day I can have a tenth of his talent, I’ll take it.”
Tenth in the world, a tenth of talent. At first I thought they were linked. That number 1 wanted all the talent, number 2 half, and so on. I drew the table in my notebook. It doesn’t work: the hundredth would settle for a hundredth, and nobody makes a career out of a hundredth of the splits.
He also said: “I’m not afraid of anyone on a court.” That’s an action film line, isn’t it? I read it aloud in the carriage. A woman moved seats.
The rest I noted down properly. It’s the first time he’s in the running for the Masters, and his season will be a success either way. A lost final at the European Open three years ago. A defeat against Blockx at under-14 level, in a junior tournament in Belgium. No pressure about being the next Frenchman to win a Grand Slam after Yannick Noah in 1983. And David Goffin, for him, is an “immense champion” and a “legend”.
A tenth of talent is what I’m missing to reach C30.3, a club-level ranking. Two practice sessions away, mind you.
I asked the newsroom how talent is measured in tennis. I was told: by ranking. And in cinema? Silence. I checked, and actually nobody knows.
Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: DH Les Sports+.
