Six Frenchmen will be in Lyon: Ugo Humbert, Arthur Rinderknech, Luca Van Assche, Arthur Gea, Gaël Monfils and the young Félix Balshaw. One is missing, and Thierry Ascione said it just like that: “Only one is missing”.
Arthur Fils, France’s number one, has just entered the world top 10 for the first time. He chose the ATP 250 in Brussels, which he has already won, according to the Lyon director. Lyon, for its part, had invited him in 2023 for what turned out to be his first title.
“I would have hoped that… but he preferred to play in Brussels. That’s it. That’s his ambition. The other Frenchmen are here. There’s not much point going any further,” Thierry Ascione said. He did go a little further anyway: “I started working on the player field in October 2025, maybe Brussels had started in September 2025, or maybe he didn’t notice we had a tournament in Lyon…”
Asked about the financial guarantee and about a possible greed on the player’s part, the director said he had not reached that stage. One more detail: this is the first year the tournament has given a wild card to a foreigner, Stan Wawrinka.
In the newsroom, one man believes he played a part in this affair, though nobody knows which one.
It’s very simple. Brussels, I said it back in January. Well, not to him, he didn’t call me, nobody calls me. But the spirit was there. A top 10 player going back to where he has won, that’s ninety percent success, and I’m being kind. Me, in Kitzbühel, in ’92, I was invited somewhere else the same week. I chose Kitzbühel. Careful, I’m not saying Lyon doesn’t exist. I’m clarifying: September 2025, that’s early. All right?
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
