“It’s like I’m talking to my best friend,” told us the Frenchman, qualified for the semi-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters in Bercy, which he will play on Saturday against Karen Khachanov.
Ugo Humbert is on mission at the Rolex Paris Masters. And nothing seems to be able to distract him from this quest at Bercy. The Frenchman will play his first Masters 1000 semi-final on Saturday, against the Russian Karen Khachanov. Brilliant in defeating world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the round of 16, Humbert once again drew on the energy of the French public to extricate himself from the trap set by the Australian Jordan Thompson who dreamed of being the executioner of the whooping cough. Unfortunately for his opponent, the Mosellan never came down from his cloud.
“When you have 15,000 people supporting you it’s an incredible asset, in the end I completely transformed myself, transcended to make incredible shots. It was just fabulous,” enthused the Frenchman as he left the court. I went for two winners to finish the match, it was incredible.”
“I can abandon myself”
Intractable in the first round, with this attacking tennis which does not let his opponents breathe, Ugo Humbert once again finished in a trance under the eyes of a conquered Yannick Noah. Driven by this unshakeable faith in his tennis which seems to have inhabited him since the start of the tournament, and this ability to master the match, whatever the scenario, including when the script goes wrong, Ugo Humbert has no doubts, or very little. Humbert also maintains this impressive state of confidence by taking advantage of every downtime in his chair to talk to himself.
“At times, yes, I can abandon myself and then I feel that it helps me enormously to talk to myself, and then I do it by speaking out loud because I need to hear it,” he confided to RMC Sport microphone at the end of the court last night I could tell myself that deep down, but it's funny for you too (laughs).” “(He regains his seriousness) It helps me a lot, it's like I'm talking to my best friend. It's something that I found, that I also felt like that. Yesterday (Thursday) it made me helped, today (Friday) again I will continue like this.
“Don't have regrets”
Against Alcaraz, these little confidence boosters allowed him to pull off some fabulous shots at key moments in the match. Facing Jordan Thompson, Humbert once again drew on his resources to emerge unscathed from a end of the second set which could have escaped him after having misplaced two match points and conceding a break which allowed his opponent to pick up again. What did he say to himself not to sink? “To give myself 100%, at every point, to have no regrets, to enjoy every second on the court, to have no regrets. It's the last Bercy, I give my all on every ball, on every point.”
It is in this state of mind that he will approach the meeting against Karen Khachanov, a match which could open the doors to a first final in a Masters 1000. The last French winner of the Masters 1000 at Paris Bercy is called Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2008), who is also the last tricolor to have triumphed in a tournament of this category. It was in 2014, in Toronto, at the end of an incredible journey. Le Manceau had ruled out Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray then Grigor Dimitrov before beating Roger Federer in the final. If he dominates Khachanov, Humbert could have to cross swords with the German Alexander Zverev (n°3), in very good form this week.
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