Ugo Humbert was looking for his first feat of arms in his “favorite tournament”. He found it in the most beautiful way on Thursday, October 31. In a bustling sports center in Bercy, the Frenchman defeated, to everyone’s surprise, Carlos Alcaraz (6-1, 3-6, 7-5), second in the world, to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters 1000.
However, not many people thought much of Messin before he took the court against the final headliner of a tournament without Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner, who had withdrawn. Not even the organizers seemed to bet first on Ugo Humbert to carry French hopes this week. On Wednesday they had also chosen to schedule the second lap of the French number 1 away from the center court, in the first annex.
“I deserved better than that. Obviously I was disappointed with the programming and a little surprised. I told myself, many times it is like that, I am a good person. So sometimes it’s used a little bit against me.” The Frenchman reacted after his quick victory against the American Marcos Girón (6-3, 6-2), although he was happy to have “He deserved his match against Alcaraz in the center”.
This time, the ” gentle “ Humbert did not give any gifts. From the first exchanges he jumped on all the balls sent by the Spaniard to multiply the dry blows, both forehand and backhand. In less than a quarter of an hour they were already leading 4-0. Just ten minutes later, he completed the first round, narrowly failing to inflict “a bubble” on his illustrious opponent (6-1), a four-time Grand Slam tournament winner.
“The best victory of my career”
“Before the game, Jérémy [Chardy, son entraîneur] He told me not to play too much from the beginning, but in the end everything worked out, I made winning move after winning move.” Ugo Humbert joked in the post-match press conference. Accustomed to taking his opponents by the throat from the first exchanges, the world number 2 got a taste of his own medicine and could only see the damage.
Throughout the match, the Frenchman never deviated from his tactics. Visibly inspired by the exploits of the brothers Félix and Alexis Lebrun, he adopted the air of a table tennis player, multiplying half-volley hits with the racket, with his feet glued to the baseline. And it’s a shame that the machine ended up stagnating in the second set, lost 6-3. “I had a little setback after giving a lot of energy on the first lap” admitted Humbert, who then adopted the homemade recipe: talk and talk again. “I needed it, I told myself I wouldn’t give up until the end. »
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