ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

October 30, 2024

Ugo Humbert

Press Conference

U. HUMBERT/M. Giron

6-3, 6-2

(In French.)

THE MODERATOR: Congrats, Ugo. 59 minutes, 35 seconds. Can you talk about the match.

UGO HUMBERT: It was a very good match on my side. The court was smaller. It was faster. I felt that as for the return and the serve, I was very aggressive. I didn't let him breathe a second. I managed to push on the second set, and I'm delighted to have deserved this victory. I played very well.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You said that the court was smaller, but weren't you frustrated to be on this court?

UGO HUMBERT: I was disappointed, because I think I deserved better. I'm No. 1 French player, and I have practiced on the center court.

It's my favorite tournament. I was disappointed that I was not on the center court. But I have deserved to play for the third round.

I'm someone who is very nice. But, you know, sometimes it is used against me. I'm delighted to have won this match, to have deserved playing on the center court against Alcaraz.

Q. When you play like this, do you feel that you're strong, and to what extent?

UGO HUMBERT: That's the question. I like to be surprised. So when I play like this, I know that everything is possible.

To what extent, I don't know. We'll see at the end of the week.

Q. Talking about the next match against Carlos, this is an event that we all want to see. When you played him in Wimbledon, what impact did you have? What lessons did you learn in terms of distance with him?

UGO HUMBERT: It was amazing. I saw him play. There was this set point on the second set where I had a wait-and-see approach, and then I managed to play loose and to go for my shots. As for the fourth set, it was 4-3, 0-40. I was about to push him to the fifth set.

And in Spain he played very well. He had the best match of the year.

So it's going to be very different. The public is going to support me. I love playing that kind of match. I knew that potentially I could play him, so it was an extra motivation to win my first two matches.

Q. Let's go back to the fact that you're varying your serves. You discovered this in Tokyo, but we're quite surprised that you said that you have discovered that, because we know that you have to vary your shots. What's behind all this?

UGO HUMBERT: Well, I manage to do inside ins to find the right angles, but when I hit on the T, it surprises the opponent. And it's fun for me. I like to vary my shots. I like to change my serves, not to do the same thing every time so that my opponent doesn't get used to my kind of serve.

Sometimes I forget that there are different options. Sometimes I don't serve close to the body. When you're a lefty, it's an advantage. Instead of having three hitting areas, I have two, and I should have three as options.

Q. You have six French players. Three have already won. Fils and Rinderknech have won. And what about Mannarino?

UGO HUMBERT: He broke? Oh, that's wonderful.

Q. It's a party. It seems to be wonderful. What do you feel?

UGO HUMBERT: It's amazing. It's great for French tennis. There are a lot of French players playing well here for. For the public also it's important, and I can say that it's just positive things.

I'm not surprised. We have wonderful French players, so I'm not surprised to see so many French players for the third round.