Beaten Wednesday in the second round of the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona by the Australian Alex De Minaur (6-3, 4-6, 6-3), Ugo Humbert still can not chain the good results. Since his quarter-final at the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021, he has never lined up two wins in a row.
Rain, gray skies, a little 14°C: it was enough for the Messin to cover themselves from head to toe to brave the Catalan freshness, Wednesday at the start of the afternoon. Solid, inspired, especially on the amortized, the Frenchman was able to widen the gap from the fourth in play, by delighting the opposing service (3-1).
A yo-yo match
The referee got down from his chair several times to see the playability of a field that the sky continued to water with regularity, but the game continued and the Australian immediately recovered his late break, on a winning passing, taking then more and more clearly the direction of the game and chained seven games (6-3, 2-0).
Incisive, Humbert in turn reversed the trend, to the point of equalizing with one set everywhere and leading 2-0 in the third set. In this yo-yo match, the Australian then scored the next five games and Humbert came back to 3-5, just before the rain sent the players back to the locker room. On the return, about twenty minutes later, the French missed a final break point, finally bowing after a final forehand attack from De Minaur. In the round of 16, the latter will face South African Lloyd Harris on Thursday.
