With his early take on the ball and his commitment forward, Ugo Humbert sometimes becomes a completely insoluble problem for his opponents. Ask Alexander Shevchenko, swept away in less than an hour on Thursday in the quarter-finals in Adelaide, he will confirm it to you (6-0, 6-3).
“Frankly, until 6-0, 3-0, I feel like I didn’t make a single mistake”rejoiced the 27-year-old Messin as he left the court. In fact, his statistics lend themselves to euphoria: 32 winning shots (including 7 aces) for 7 unforced errors, with 85% success behind his first ball. “Already against Griekspoor on Wednesday, from 4-2 for him, I played extremely well (6-4, 6-1 victory against the 25th in the world). Actually beating Terence Atmane in the first round (6-3, 7-6) did me good. In Brisbane, last week, I had a great start to the match against Cameron Norrie before I tense (6-1, 2-0, then missed three match points in the tie-break before losing (1-6, 7-6 [6]7-5). I wanted to do well for the first tournament of the year. In Adelaide, I tried to relax a little more. »
The result is impressive and the sensations are fantastic: “I’m positive on the court, I talk to myself, it works well. And by being more relaxed, I play really well. What’s crazy is that I don’t feel like I’m overplaying at all. I just look for my zones and it leaves the racket quite quickly. I don’t do anything. And from time to time, when there is an extraordinary move to be made, as if by chance, I put it on too. On the court, I had a lot of fun and I had a blast. »
A profitable offseason
Stopped before the end of last season by a back injury which caused him to miss the Masters 1000 in Paris, the last edition of “his” Moselle Open and the final phase of the Davis Cup, the 36th player in the world took advantage of this much longer off-season than usual to strengthen himself physically and prepare like never before for a new season, between Luxembourg and Dubai.
In the semi-finals on Friday, he will face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, winner (7-6). [4]6-2) by Valentin Vacherot. For the moment, there is no question for him of taking a look at the table of the Australian Open, where fate has designated him a shock entry against Ben Shelton. “Don’t tell me anything, I want to finish here peacefully first”. We didn’t say anything.
