Ugo Humbert will play the final in front of his audience. The native of Metz qualified for the city’s ATP 250 final after his demonstration in the semi-final against Fabio Fognini (6-0, 6-2) on Friday evening. The left-hander only left two short games to the Italian, who was completely overwhelmed.
Humbert, frustrated by Alexander Zverev in the 2nd round of the last Rolex Paris Masters, confirmed his great feelings of the moment this week in Moselle. He will play Russian Alexander Shevchenko for the title on Saturday. Important figure: Humbert has never lost a final on the ATP circuit, he who has three titles: Antwerp, Auckland in 2020 and Halle in 2021.
A cruel defeat, at the end of the suspense: relive Humbert’s disillusionment with Zverev
Herbert’s beautiful run stopped in the half
The beautiful story ended in the last four. Having fallen to 344th place in the world and invited by the organization of the Moselle Open, Pierre-Hugues Herbert stopped on Friday with three consecutive victories. The Alsatian came up against a too tough opponent in the semi-final in the person of the Russian Alexander Shevchenko, 63rd in the ATP, who won in two sets (6-4, 6-4) and 1h17 of time. Thursday. The latter will face Ugo Humbert or Fabio Fognini in the final.
Like Thursday, Pierre-Hugues Herbert conceded the entry break. But this time, he never recovered. Faced with a much more mobile opponent, Herbert had great difficulty on his second service ball (29% success). Although he resisted better in the second set, he ended up giving in 4 games everywhere. Despite this defeat at the gates of the final, he will gain nearly 100 places in the rankings next week, a dynamic that will need to be maintained at the start of 2024.