Ugo Humbert ‘super happy’ after Stefanos Tsitsipas win while Greek admits he is ‘disappointed’

Shahida Jacobs
Ugo Humbert in action

There were contrasting emotions from Ugo Humbert and Stefanos Tsitsipas following their second-round encounter at the Paris Masters.

Frenchman Humbert was naturally delighted after upsetting second seed Tsitsipas in the ATP Masters 1000 event, winning 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3) in three hours and 15 minutes.

It was Tsitsipas who had the early advantage as he broke in game two to go 3-0 up, but Humbert got back on serve in game five and then edged the tie-breaker.

After no breaks in the second set, the tie-breaker was a real humdinger as the Greek saved three match points before edging the set to draw level.

Tsitsipas started the decider poorly as he was broken in game one, but broke back in game six. However, it wasn’t to be as the 22-year-old Humbert edged the tie-breaker again.

“I’m super happy, super proud of myself,” said Humbert. “I was mentally very strong to win this match against Tsitsipas, one of the best players in the world.”

He added: “It was very, very hard at the end of the second set because I was a little bit stressed and tight to finish the match. I tried to play one by one [and] gave what I can.

“I was very relaxed [in the third set]. I tried to serve well. It’s very nice to win this kind of match like this.”

Tsitsipas, who will next be in action at the season-ending ATP Finals where he is the defending champion, was not pleased with his performance.

“I’m just disappointed with the way I played,” he said. “During the second set my Roland Garros injury came back, and it wasn’t as bad as at the French Open, but it kind of had me on the edge of things, and I wasn’t sure if that’s good for me to be out there.

“But that’s not an excuse, for sure. I still fought and gave my best out there, despite this thing that I had on court.”

Tsitsipas also praised Humbert, who will face 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic in the third round.

“He was just creating a lot of opportunities from his forehand side and doing a lot of damage from there,” he said. “His serve was very consistent. Despite having opportunities where he would serve second serves [and] I could come in [and] be more aggressive, it didn’t seem as easy as I had it planned in my head.”

Eighth seed David Goffin was another big casualty as the Belgian lost 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) against world No 105 Norbert Gombos, Pablo Carreno Busta beat Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 while former Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic beat Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-2.

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