No. 6 seed Arthur Fils made a successful return to competition at the Open Occitanie, his first event since early August 2025 following a lower back injury. The 21-year-old produced 50 winners, including 14 aces, to defeat countryman Valentin Royer 7-6(7), 6-7(4), 6-2 in two hours and 33 minutes in Montpellier.

“It’s been a while since I last competed, so returning to the circuit is great,” Fils told press during Media Day. “I feel a lot of joy and happiness. I’m very excited to be back on the courts with so many fans.

“It’s been a long process. I’m back, so that means everything is positive, both mentally and physically.”

Fils withdrew from Roland Garros in May 2025 after suffering a lower back injury that was later diagnosed as a stress fracture during a five-set, four-and-a-half-hour second-round battle against Jaume Munar. That match was later selected as the second-best of 2025, according to Steve Tignor.

He tried to resume play in Canada in August 2025, winning a singles match and teaming with Ben Shelton to reach a doubles quarterfinal, but the comeback was short-lived. He then announced that he would shut down his season to recover. “Excluding Roland Garros, I think withdrawing from the Masters 1000 in Paris was the hardest moment,” he said in Montpellier.

The injury interrupted a rapid rise: Fils climbed to a career-high No. 14 in April 2025 after runs to the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, Miami (including a win over world No. 2 Alexander Zverev) and Monte Carlo, and a semifinal in Barcelona. Now ranked No. 42, he arrives in Montpellier determined to rebuild and defend points.

Fils skipped the opening weeks of the 2026 season, missing the Australian swing while continuing rehabilitation, a decision he outlined in a vlog on his YouTube channel. He has worked with a nutritionist and said he lost “six or seven kilos since Roland Garros.” “I’m 21, I still have around 10 to 15 years of career [ahead], so it’s not a race,” he added. “I work with a lot of people to try to start fresh … and I think that now I’m on the right track, so I’ve got to continue.”

Mirra Andreeva arrived at the Adelaide final day juggling match preparation and a small personal debate. “It’s going to be very entertaining,” she said of the championship match, but immediately after her semifinal she admitted she was torn over how to unwind: “It’s like a chocolate fondant with pistachio sauce inside. And I’m debating whether I should go and have the dessert, or whether I should just should stay in the room and watch some Netflix.”

Whatever she chose, the 18-year-old world No. 8 understood the task ahead. She will meet 19-year-old Victoria Mboko for the title, a first meeting since their junior days. Andreeva, the No. 3 seed who advanced by brushing aside her former doubles partner Diana Shnaider, is contesting a title match for the first time since Indian Wells.

Andreeva offered a measured assessment of her opponent: “I felt like she’s been playing well, and she’s been raising her level tournament to tournament. I know that she likes to take the ball early. She likes to be aggressive on the court. She likes to dictate the point as well. She has a great serve.”

Mboko has arrived in Adelaide on the back of a breakthrough 2025 season. She earned WTA Newcomer of the Year after climbing more than 300 places into the year-end Top 20 and captured her first tour-level crown, a WTA 1000 title in Montreal. The Canadian then added a second WTA triumph in Hong Kong to finish the season.

“Seeing her uprise, I think it’s motivating for me and I think a lot of young girls out there who want to play at this level of tennis,” Mboko said of Andreeva. “Yeah, it’s just a nice thing to see. She’s a super nice girl, and we’re quite good friends off the court.”

Mboko, the eighth seed in Adelaide, improved to 5-1 on the young season after dismissing Kimberly Birrell and said the extra court hours can help: “I think having that many hours on court can help you. It can help me in the next round, being in difficult situations, and just generally improving throughout the tournament.”

Andreeva, visibly eager for the match, added: “Honestly, if I could have played tonight, I would have played. Because, I don’t know, for some reason I’m so excited to go on court tomorrow. I’m just happy to share the final with Vicky.”

Tatjana Maria defeated Venus Williams 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Hobart International, registering a straight-sets win in the first career meeting between the two veterans. The 38-year-old mother of two closed out the match after breaking serve five times in just under an hour-and-a-half on court.

Their combined age exceeded 84 years, making it the oldest match on the WTA tour since the tour began in 1973. The result followed Maria’s loss the previous week in the first round of the Brisbane International to 17-year-old Aussie Emerson Jones.

“Everybody loves Venus—I love her too!” the German said, noting a local connection: Maria makes her family home near Williams in Florida. She also described her children’s excitement about the matchup. Maria said her two daughters, 12-year-old Charlotte and 4-year-old Cecilia, count Williams among their favorite players.

“They said they are for me! But Charlotte’s reaction was, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing. I’m going to see Venus against you?’,” Maria said. “For me, to play her was such an honor because I never played her before. It was not easy with all the wind but it was amazing.”

For Williams, the loss extended a difficult run in main-draw singles. Since becoming the second-oldest winner of a WTA main-draw singles match in the Open Era last summer in Washington, D.C., former world No. 1 Williams has lost five straight singles matches. The Hobart meeting paired two experienced players and produced a clear, straight-sets outcome as the early-season events continue to unfold.