ATP Rankings: The 13 Frenchman to reach the top 10 as Arthur Fils joins the list
Arthur Fils made his top-10 debut in the ATP Rankings this week as he climbed two places to a new high of No 9, making him only the 13th player from France to reach the milestone.
The 22-year-old’s rise is no surprise as he made his top-20 bow in late 2024, but he struggled with injury during the latter half of the 2025 season and the beginning of 2026, resulting in a slump to No 42.
Fils missed this year’s Australian Open and French Open due to a back injury, but his season has already had several highlights as he won his maiden ATP Masters 1000 event at the Cincinnati Open in August and also lifted the ATP 500 Barcelona Open in April.
Those results have played a big role in his jump into the top 10 as he emulates 12 of his French compatriots who have reached the feat since the ATP Rankings were introduced in 1973.
The 13 Frenchmen To Reach Top 10 In ATP Rankings
1. Yannick Noah – 1982
The 1983 French Open champion made his top 10 debut the year before he won the clay-court Grand Slam on home soil.
The tennis great, who won 23 singles titles, went on to reach a career-high No 3 in the rankings in 1986 and spent a total of 275 weeks in the top 10.
2. Henri Leconte
Six years after Noah made history, Leconte followed in his footsteps as the second Frenchman to hit the top 10, achieving the feat in May 1986.
Leconte, who finished runner-up to Mats Wilander at the 1988 French Open, went on to reach a career-high No 5 later in 1986 and spent 76 weeks inside the top 10.
3. Thierry Tulasne
The five-time ATP title winner became the third Frenchman to reach the top 10 as he emulated the other two in August 1986, but he spent only one week there.
4. Guy Forget
It would take another five years before another Frenchman cracked the nod, with Forget reaching the milestone on the back of a run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in 1991.
In March, he reached a career-high No 4 and spent 76 weeks in the top 10.
5. Cedric Pioline
Two years later, Pioline cracked the top 10 in August 1993 and nearly a decade later he would reach the top five as he achieved that feat in May 2000.
The Frenchman, who finished runner-up at two Grand Slams, the 1993 US Open and 1997 Wimbledon, was in the top 10 for 41 weeks in total.
6. Sebastien Grosjean
Grosjean made his bow in 2001 and in October 2002 he reached a high of No 4, with his jump coming on the back of winning the St. Petersburg title.
That was his third ATP Tour singles title and he went on to win only one more tournament, the Open Sud de France, in 2007.
Grosjean spent 111 weeks in the top 10.
7. Arnaud Clement
Clement entered the top 10 for the first time in April 2001 with that achievement coming after he finished runner-up to Andre Agassi at the Australian Open.
His top-10 career was brief as it lasted only two weeks.
8. Richard Gasquet
Gasquet was the first member of the so-called “New Musketeers” of French tennis to hit the top 10 as the milestone arrived in 2007 with his Wimbledon semi-final a big help as he jumped to a career-high No 7.
He spent 146 weeks in the top 10 and won 16 titles, but sadly none of them was a Grand Slam trophy.
The Frenchman also reached the last four at the US Open in 2014 and made another quarter-final appearance at the All England Club in 2015.
9. Gilles Simon
Simon finished runner-up to Andy Murray at the 2008 Madrid Masters and the following week he made his top 10 debut while he reached a career-high No 6 in January the following year.
He won 14 titles and was a member of the top 10 for 56 weeks.
10. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Tsonga lost his one and only Grand Slam final against Novak Djokovic in January 2008 and later in the year he won the Paris Masters, which saw him crack the top 10 for the first time.
He went on to reach a high of No 5 in February 2012 and completed 260 weeks in the top 10.
11. Gael Monfils
Another member of the “New Musketeers”, Monfils turned into one of the most entertaining players on the ATP Tour.
He first climbed into the top 10 for the first time in February 2009 and reached a career-high No 6 in November 2016 after reaching the semi-final of the US Open.
Monfils, who is retiring from tennis at the end of 2026, won 13 singles titles and spent 96 weeks in the top 10 with the last week coming in September 2020.
12. Lucas Pouille
The most recent Frenchman to hit the top-10 before Fils as he achieved the feat in March 2018, but two weeks later he dropped out and never returned.
Pouille has won five titles and remains active on the ATP Tour.
13. Arthur Fils
Many believe that Fils is the man to end France’s long wait for another Grand Slam title and he has all the tools to go all the way at one of the biggest events on the tennis calendar.
The Frenchman’s top-10 debut came after his Cincinnati Open title while other highs in 2026 include finishing runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the Qatar Open while he was also a semi-finalist at the Miami Open and Madrid Open.
Fils has already won five titles at the age of 22.
