From our special correspondent in the wonderful world of Ugo Humbert,
Okay, sorry Ugo, but you're going to have to get used to playing the first tricks in the cellar given how well you're doing. Magnificent faller from Carlos Alcaraz, in the round of 16, Thursday evening, at Bercy, the Messin had complained the day before of having been scheduled on court number 1 in the previous round, this kind of low-ceilinged room with the air of hells on earth for hardened claustrophobics. He believed he deserved the Central as French number 1. The truth is that this choice of the organizers was mainly due to the name of his opponent of the day, Marcos Giron, less known to the general public than a minister of ecological transition under Macron.
But what matters, in the end. We can even wonder if this injury to the ego did not help him on Wednesday to bring out the craziest match of his life, against the ogre Alcaraz, whom no one imagined falling so early in the tournament. Person ? Yes, an irreducible person from Lorraine still resisted the diktat of the predictions. The day before, at a press conference, visionary Ugo had dreamed of the future scenario: “It's the kind of match that I love to play, I'm not afraid to play the best, I'm capable of beating them. I'm just waiting for the atmosphere. I'm going to try to take the audience with me, to push me like never before. I had seen his match against (Hugo) Gaston (defeat in the second round 6-4, 7-5, in 2021). I wish they were this warm. It was incredible! They had managed to get it completely unpinned. »
Crazy atmosphere but without going overboard
Thursday evening, he didn't need anyone to blow the Spaniard's cork. And if the public obviously played its role, we were far from the infernal atmosphere of bullfighting on amphetamines of three years ago. Still traumatized by the misery that the (very) dissipated Parisian public had caused him, Alcaraz was not unhappy: “Yes, it was different (laughs)! This year, the public made a lot of noise but people were also behind me, they shouted my name, they applauded my points, it was more respectful. And so much the better, I thank them for it. »
This time, therefore, it was Humbert, and Humbert only, who worked to ensure that this match found a small place, snug under the duvet, in the great history book of this Bercy tournament. For the last of the lasts before the big jump in Nanterre next year, we honestly couldn't dream of a better scenario. “That’s why I do this job, to experience these moments,” declared the hero of the day. It's my favorite tournament. I experienced the greatest victory of my career but also the most beautiful moment of my life on a tennis court. » Us too, or not far away, but from a little higher up in the stands.
Besides, we were still with Arthur Fils debriefing his narrow defeat against Zverev in the press room when the furious Messin entered the court to ruin everything. Result of the races, a first set won 6-1 (SIX-UUUUUUUUUN!!!) in barely half an hour of play in front of an audience almost pinching themselves to believe their eyes. We almost saw ourselves sixteen years ago, when we had our lives ahead of us and ten kilos less, in front of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's recital against Nadal at the Australian Open.
We wonder what could have been going on in his head for him to find himself dismantling one of the best players in the world in such an insolent manner. He doesn't know it himself: “Jérémy (Chardy, his coach) told me not to overplay as I did in the Davis Cup (defeat against Alcaraz on September 14). But there, I don't know, everything came in, I put winning move after winning move (laughs). I was ultra-aggressive on feedback. »
Alcaraz applauds his executioner
It was this crazy aggressiveness that seemed to take the Spaniard by surprise. “It was very complicated. Against Ugo, it's never easy, he's a boy who gives everything, who always plays 100% and who doesn't give you any respite, he analyzed afterwards. I had a lot of trouble getting into the match, it didn't give me time to play my tennis. He was incredible and I couldn't live up to him. Every time I play against him, I have the impression that he is progressing, that he is surpassing himself, and this is even more the case in Paris in front of his audience. There is nothing to say, you just have to applaud. »
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The drop in speed in the second set calmed us down a lot and, from the height of our legendary baseness, we even said to ourselves that the matter was over for the French number 1. But that was without counting on this inner rage which accompanied him throughout the third round. Not conceding any service game and seeing the points go by, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, Messin understood that his time had come. And before the tie-break if possible. A few angry punches to the heart later, one or two electric glances towards his clan and three paranormal passing shots, and now Ugo Humbert took the scalp of Alcaraz.
He describes: “I thought about the match against Zverev last year (defeat in the round of 16 at Bercy) and it gave me strength. In the third set I kept talking to myself, I needed that, to tell myself that I was with me, that I wasn't going to let go (sic). It did me good, I felt like that so I have to believe it was the right solution. » With a smile plastered on his face as he left the press room, he refused to look forward to his quarter-final on Friday against the Australian Jordan Thomson, while admitting that “on this surface, as on grass, I know that I can annoy the very best in the world. » And he concludes: “When I play like that, anything is possible. » For one last lap at Bercy, as long as it lasts as long as possible.
