WATCH: Fils And Seyboth Wild Get Into Heated Exchange After Controversial Call At Davis Cup
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Arthur Fils and Thiago Seyboth Wild met in the 2025 Davis Cup Qualifiers tie between France and Brazil, and their match got very heated.
France and Brazil are two of the teams hoping to seal their spot in the second round of the 2025 Davis Cup Qualifiers. There are two rounds that teams have to pass to reach the knock-out stage, and this is the first of those.
The winner of this tie will play against Croatia in the second round. The Croatian team bested Slovakia in their first-round tie after winning the first three matches.
The first round of the Qualifiers is played between January 31st to February 2nd, so there were various dates when the countries could hold their ties. France and Brazil started at the latest possible date, which is why their tie is only one of the two ties that will be decided on the last day of the competition.
The tie is played at the Palais des Sports Jean Ros in Orleans, France, so the French team has a home-ground advantage. They were able to use that advantage in the first singles match.
Ugo Humbert bested teenage prodigy Joao Fonseca, who beat Andrey Rublev at the Australian Open. The French player won the match 7-5, 6-3.
In the second match, Arthur Fils played against Thiago Seyboth Wild. The French player easily won the first set 6-1, but the second set was much closer than that.
Neither of the players had any break points in the second set, but that was until the ninth game when the score was locked at 4-4. The two played the longest game of the match.
Fils had four break points, but he couldn't use his first three chances. On the fourth break point, however, he got a bit lucky when a ball from his opponent clipped the net in such a way that allowed him to play a relatively easy ball.
The Frenchman went for a relatively powerful shot close to the body of his opponent. Seyboth Wild barely avoided the ball, which landed out.
However, surprisingly, the umpire of the match called Seyboth Wild's "touch," which meant that the point was awarded to Fils. As a result, he also won the game to lead 5-4 and serve for the match.
The Brazilian player and his team's coach, Jaime Oncins, immediately complained to the umpire that Seyboth Wild didn't touch the ball. But the decision stayed.
Seyboth Wild even asked his opponent to tell the umpire that he didn't touch the ball, but the Frenchman didn't seem to be willing to help his opponent.
The match continued, and Fils won it 6-1, 6-4 to secure also the second point for France. That means that on Day 2, the French team needs to win only one more match to secure their spot in the second round of the 2025 Davis Cup Qualifiers.
However, the match was overshadowed not only by the controversy in the ninth game but also by what happened after the match. Seyboth Wild and Fils got into a heated exchange, with the Brazilian player likely very unhappy that his opponent didn't want to give him the controversial point.
