In a match between two former champions at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Ugo Humbert saved all three breakpoints he faced and broke serve once in each set to overcome last year’s winner Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 7-5. The Greek only lost five points behind his first delivery but struggled severely behind his second and was regularly put under pressure in return games. He lost the match when he mis-hit a forehand wide as his title defence ended at the first hurdle.
“I think it was a big battle on serve,” said Humbert. “We served very well from the beginning to the end. I was a bit lucky. In the last game at 5-4, I did a double fault, but when I had opportunities, I took them. I’m happy about this first win, because Stef is a big player.”
Tsitsipas, who reached the quarter finals last week in Doha, will now drop outside of the top 40 in the rankings for the first time in eight years.
Meanwhile Andrey Rublev turned on the style and served nine aces to beat Valentin Royer 6-3, 6-4. The Russian won 81% behind his first serve with just two double faults and created 16 breakpoint chances to come through against his French opponent who had won their only previous encounter on an outdoor hard court in Hangzhou.
Jakub Mensik is also through to the next round, winning a stunning 97% of points behind first serve and sealed the match with an ace to beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 7-6.
Elsewhere, Karen Khachanov dropped the first set before coming back to defeat Alexander Shevchenko in a tight tussle lasting over two hours 6-7, 6-2, 6-3. Russian Daniil Medvedev took just over an hour to defeat Juncheng Shang 6-1, 6-3, and goes on to face Stan Wawrinka, while second seed Alexander Bublik beat lucky-loser Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3 6-4.
In other results today:
Pablo Carreno Busta beat Denis Shapavalov 6-2, 6-4
Jenson Brooksby beat Zizou Bergs 6-3, 6-4
Tallon Griekspoor beat Otto Virtanen 6-3, 6-4
Alexei Popyrin beat Kamil Majchrzak 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
Arthur Rinderknech beat Fabian Marozsan 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Jiri Lehecka beat Luca Nardi 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
