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.”

Novak Djokovic did not claim what would have been the 25th Grand Slam title, falling to Carlos Alcaraz in four sets in the final, but his run in Melbourne reconfigured several all-time marks. A first-round 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win over Pedro Martinez made him only the second player, male or female, to reach 100 career wins at the Australian Open, behind Roger Federer, who finished with 102. Serena Williams sits next with 92.

With 101 wins at Roland Garros and 102 at Wimbledon, Djokovic became the first player in tennis history to register 100 or more career wins at three different Grand Slams. He remains two wins shy of 100 at the US Open, where he has 95 career wins.

The opening victory extended a streak to 76 consecutive first-round Grand Slam wins, the longest in the Open Era. His last first-round exit came in 2006 against Paul Goldstein. An identical 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 second-round win over Francesco Maestrelli stretched his run to 64 straight victories across the opening two rounds of majors and left him 32-0 against qualifiers at Grand Slams. Maestrelli had qualified and beaten Terence Atmane in the first round.

A 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) third-round victory over Botic van de Zandschulp made Djokovic the first player, male or female, to reach 400 career Grand Slam match wins. That result also marked his 70th career appearance in a Grand Slam round of 16, surpassing Federer’s 69, and improved his Australian Open third-round record to 18-0, with a 52-5 set record in those matches.

Jakub Mensik’s withdrawal before the fourth round due to an abdominal injury advanced Djokovic into a 16th Australian Open quarterfinal, a men’s record, and his 65th Grand Slam quarterfinal overall. Lorenzo Musetti retired in the quarters, and Djokovic then defeated Jannik Sinner in the semifinal, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, ending Sinner’s 19-match Australian Open winning streak and several other streaks Sinner held.

That semifinal was Djokovic’s 20th Top 5 win at the Australian Open, tying Rafael Nadal (at Roland Garros) for the most career Top 5 wins by a man at a single major in ATP rankings history since 1973. The victory was also his 104th match win in Melbourne, two clear of Federer, and put him into an 11th Australian Open final and a 38th Grand Slam final.

At 38, he became the oldest man in the Open Era to reach the Australian Open final and the oldest man at a major since Ken Rosewall reached finals as a 39-year-old in 1974. This is the record-extending 17th different season in which he has reached at least one major final, doing it in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and now 2016. He has reached 38 finals in the 81 majors he has played and 38 finals in the last 70 majors he has played, a stretch dating back to the 2007 US Open. The run also returned the 24-time Grand Slam champion to the Top 3 in the rankings; he had spent a record 428 career weeks at No. 1 and had been oscillating between No. 4 and No. 7 for the previous 16 months, but he moved back to No. 3 for the first time since the two weeks of the 2024 US Open.

Novak Djokovic’s march to the Australian Open final reconfigured the record books even though he did not lift the title. His first-round 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Pedro Martinez made him only the second player, male or female, to reach 100 career wins at the Australian Open, joining Roger Federer. Combined with 101 wins at Roland Garros and 102 at Wimbledon, he became the first player in history to register 100 or more career wins at three different Grand Slams.

That opening match also extended a streak: it was his 76th consecutive first-round win at Grand Slams, the longest in the Open Era. He has not exited in the first round since his 2006 loss to Paul Goldstein. A second-round 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Francesco Maestrelli pushed his run to 64 consecutive wins across the first two rounds of majors and left him 32-0 against qualifiers at Grand Slams.

The third-round 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) triumph over Botic van de Zandschulp produced another landmark: Djokovic became the first player, male or female, to record 400 career Grand Slam match wins. That result also marked his 70th career round-of-16 appearance at a major and improved his third-round record at the Australian Open to 18-0.

Jakub Mensik’s fourth-round withdrawal moved Djokovic into a 16th Australian Open quarterfinal, a men’s record, and into his 65th Grand Slam quarterfinal. After Lorenzo Musetti retired in the quarters, Djokovic defeated Jannik Sinner in a five-set semifinal, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, ending Sinner’s 19-match Australian Open winning streak and several longer streaks Sinner held against top opponents.

The win over Sinner was Djokovic’s 20th Top 5 victory at the Australian Open, tying Rafael Nadal (at Roland Garros) for the most career Top 5 wins by a man at a single major in ATP rankings history. It also lifted Djokovic to 104 career wins in Melbourne, two clear of Federer, and into his 11th Australian Open final and 38th Grand Slam final.

At 38, he became the oldest man in the Open Era to reach the Australian Open final and the oldest man at a major since Ken Rosewall in 1974. This marked the 17th different season in which he reached at least one major final, doing it in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and now 2016. He has reached 38 finals in the 81 majors he has played and 38 finals in the last 70 majors he has played. The result also returned the 24-time Grand Slam champion to the Top 3 in the rankings, his first time there since the two weeks of the 2024 US Open; he has spent a record 428 career weeks at No. 1.