Ugo Humbert begins the defense of his title with victory against Bublik | ATP Tour

Marseilles

Humbert begins the defense of his title with victory against Bublik

Medjedovic surprised the favorite No. 3 Khachanov towards the rooms

February 12, 2025

This Wednesday they undertook their way at the Open 13 Provence two of the main favorites exempt from playing the inaugural tie: Ugo Humbert, second head of series; and Karen Khachanov, third. But luck was disparate for both.

The French had to initiate the defense of the title that conquered last year in the ATP 250 against a dangerous rival like Alexander Bublik, which ended up exceeding 7-6 (7), 6-4 in one hour and 33 minutes to advance to quarter finals.

“I was wrong today, but in the end I found a solution,” Humbert acknowledged. “It is not easy to return, but it is a real pleasure because I have great memories here. Could anything happen [contra Bublik]play very well on covered track. He has won titles in Montpellier, so he knew he was not going to be easy with his great serve, but I am proud of this victory. ”

“It is a different tournament for me, because I have to defend the title. It is a different pressure, but I will try to find the solution to win my games here. It is a pleasure to play in France, the public drives me, so I like to play in Marseille. ”

The conditions on a hard cover and in his country are the favorites of Humbert, who already adds 10 victories in 12 games played in his four participations in Marseille. And it is that the player born in Metz has reached the semifinals, at least, in his previous three presences in the tournament (2019, 2021, 2024).

In the last game of the day on Wednesday, Humbert resisted the 10 direct serves of Bublik, adding his second victory in the Lexus ATP Head2head against the Kazakh. Of course, in a disputed first set with multiple alternatives he was close to tilting his knee when he was with 3-5 to the rest, but the ranter ended by 9-7.

No. 17 of the PIF ATP Rankings ended up turning two of the four break opportunities, according to the Infos ATP statistics, three of them in a match point in the tenth game of the second set.

For his part, Khachanov also premiered on the hard track French cover but did not run the same fate as Humbert. The standard head No. 3, champion in 2018, was surpassed by Hamad Medjedovic 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 12 minutes.

The Serbian competes in his first ATP Tour tournament of the season, after his pass in the first of the year by the ATP Challenger Tour, where he conquered the trophy in Oeiras (Portugal).

Medjedovic appeared in the quarterfinals for the fourth time in his career (he has a 3-0 record in this round) in the ATP Tour and will do so for the third time in a hard-cut roof tournament (Astana 2023 and Belgrade 2024).

For a semifinal place he will meet Daniel Altmaier, who took his opportunity to link two consecutive ATP Tour quarterfinals (Róterdam and Marseille), by defeating Otto Virtanen 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 27 minutes.

Did you know what …?
Ugo Humbert will try to add 150 ATP Tour victories throughout his career in the quarterfinals of the Open 13 Provence against favorite No. 7 Lorenzo Sonego, who advanced without jumping on track this Wednesday after Luca Van Assche’s disease. So far registers a record of 149-127, raising a total of 6 titles.