By Chris Oddo | Friday February 22, 2019
France’s Ugo Humbert has been doing a whole lot of winning of late—the 20-year-old has competed in ten finals at the challenger and futures level since the beginning of 2018—so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s into his first ATP semifinal at the Open 13 in Marseille and set to make his Top 60 debut next week (at the very least).
But when we step back and look at the full picture, it’s hard not to be a bit taken aback by just how comfortable the Metz, France native has looked in Marseille this week.
He’s been nothing short of formidable.
Heading into Saturday’s semi-final against Mikhail Kukushkin Humbert only has 13 ATP-level matches to his name, so it’s hard to predict where he’ll go from here, but thus far Humbert has given fans every reason to believe that he could be headed for a very bright future on tour.
Like so many French players past and present, Humbert has a highly stylized game that is pleasing for purists to watch. He can do a little bit of everything but he’s especially good in the finer points—angles, touch, nuance, variety.
Humbert is not a gripper and ripper. He’s a thoughtful, consummate massager of the ball. He builds points incrementally and is well-rounded and balanced—happy on offense, happy on defense— despite a lean, sinewy frame that looks as of yet to be underdeveloped.
But this week in Marseille, a colorful seaside metropolis known perhaps more for its bouillabaisse than its tennis, Humbert’s all-court prowess has outshined his lack of physical maturity and experience and caught the attention of fans, both local and global.
Humbert’s game has all the ingredients to make a fine tennis stew, but it’s his excellent feel for the court’s geometry that is most arresting. He has demonstrated this capacity for angelic angles time and time again this week, whether deep behind the baseline, camped on it, or way inside the service line.
Like so many French players Humbert oozes flair. He massages the ball methodically as he probes in rallies, using a slightly unorthodox forehand that produces a round trajectory and a flatter backhand that he can produce quite efficiently on the run. It’s fun to watch the lanky Frenchman squeeze his long frame into a crouch as he strikes his backhand on the stretch. Because he’s quite adept at this shot, and can angle it crosscourt with pace, he’s a very good counterpuncher.
Humbert can be passive and content to rally without much pace, but he’s also got the tools and the tactics to be aggressive. The things that make him a definite plus-talent are his serve, which is really quite wicked and quintessentially lefty, and his net play.
Humbert is incredibly adept at the net and, while not desperate to get there to finish points, he does manage to sneak inside the service line quite often. When he does it’s easy to see that he’s no novice. He’s got touch, he’s got nuance and he has patience. Composed and calculated, Humbert is more than happy to play cat-and-mouse at net, hitting the first volley to set up an easier second volley.
His net play really shone brightly on Thursday when he knocked off second-seeded Borna Coric 6-3 6-3 for his biggest career win. He approached often and never looked out of place, even against a tremendous baseline player like the World No.13.
Circling back to his groundstrokes: Humbert’s favorite shot is his backhand and it’s his steadier shot as well. That said, there can be quite a bit of menace on his forehand at times, and on several occasions Friday in his victory over Matthias Bachinger he hit incredible running passing shots off that wing. We can probably expect this wing to become more and more of a weapon as he strengthens and matures and seeks methods to attack the net.
The win over Coric was of course the high point and the real eye-opener for Humbert, but a first-round win over Ernests Gulbis, a former champion in Marseille, wasn’t too shabby either.
We won’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves with Humbert until he demonstrates his chops against some more Top 50 players (he’s only 6-7 lifetime at the ATP level after all), and at different venues outside of France. That said, there’s a lot to like about the southpaw's game and it feels like he has the potential to be one of France’s best players in the years to come.
He trains in Paris under the auspices of longtime coach Cedric Raynaud, and prefers hard courts. Humbert, who will turn 21 in June, was never a Top 10 junior and had some struggles with injuries when he was in his formative years, but now it seems that those issues are behind him and it is full speed ahead.
The numbers tell the story. He has risen from just inside the Top 400 to well inside the Top 100 in just over a year. In that span he earned three futures titles, four challenger titles and another three runner-up finishes at challengers.
That’s impressive at any age, and from the looks of things there’s plenty of room for this young player to add layers to his game. 2019 will be interesting for Humbert. Now inside the Top 60 he’ll be able to get plenty of matches on the ATP tour and begin to experience the jump in competition level on a consistent basis..
If he really does have what it takes to be a Top 20 or even Top 10 talent, this will be a crucial year in Humbert’s development. Like his game, and his recent rise, his next 10 months will be interesting to watch.