Continuing the trend of making a strong start to the year, Frenchman Ugo Humbert on Sunday notched up a thrilling three-set win over Daniil Medvedev.
Humbert showed incredible grit in his near-three-hour win over Medvedev, coming back from losing the opening set in a tight tiebreaker. He was quick to move past the disappointment of having served a double fault at set point down and managed to prevail 6-7(5), 7-5, 7-6(2).
But Sunday's win was not Humbert's first over a big name or even Medvedev. The Frenchman, in fact, has a 6-4 win-loss record against top-10 players. And yet not many outside French tennis circles know a lot about the youngster. Here, we have compiled all the information you need to have on Ugo Humbert in the wake of his brilliant win.
Who is Ugo Humbert?
Ugo Humbert is a French professional tennis player who was born in Metz in 1998. He took up tennis at the age of five after watching his father play the sport.
Humbert revealed in one of his 2019 interviews that he wanted tennis to be his full-time profession from a young age. He decided to move to Poitiers at the age of 12, to train at the French Tennis Federation.
The youngster suffered through a series of growth-related injuries that sidelined him for long periods during his early years. Humbert, however, credits the early setbacks for having built a "strong" character.
"I was injured for almost one and a half years because of growth injuries. Sometimes I thought about stopping, but I liked very much what I did so I kept fighting and thinking that it was improving and that I could play again. I had a strong character," Humbert said in a 2019 interview.
As a junior, Humbert climbed to No. 18 in the world rankings, later making the transition onto the senior tour in 2016.
His versatile game—built aound a powerful serve, flat groundstrokes and an adept frontcourt game—helped him move up the rankings and he finally made his big breakthrough at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships—where he reached the fourth round.
Ugo Humbert's biggest ATP tour results
Ugo Humbert backed up his Wimbledon fourth-round run with a series of impressive results on the ATP tour, scoring a couple of title wins in 2020.
The Frenchman's first ATP title came at the season-opening 2020 ASB Classic, where he defeated countryman Benoit Paire in the summit clash. He then went on to lift the trophy at the European Open, which helped him break into the top 30 in the world rankings.
Two of the biggest wins of Humbert's career, however, came at the 2021 Noventi Open in Halle, where he beat fellow Next Gen stars Andrey Rublev and Alexander Zverev enroute to his first ATP 500 title.
Humbert is no stranger to the Aussie crowds either. In addition to his victory over Medvedev and the title win in Auckland, the Frenchman has played a few other memorable matches in Australia, the most recent of which culminated in a heartbreaking five-set defeat to home favorite Nick Kyrgios.
But with a victory over one of the most in-form names on the men's tour already under his belt, Humbert has gotten his season off to a flying start.