When the two youngest men left in the draw faced off in the third round, all the talk beforehand was of the fast-rising 18-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime. But the No.19 seed’s error-strewn display was bossed off the court and out of SW19 by France’s Ugo Humbert.
On his Wimbledon debut, the cool-headed southpaw delivered an outstanding performance to take a shock victory 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes. The 21-year-old’s reward is a last 16 meeting with champion Novak Djokovic on Monday.
Little wonder Humbert – the world No.66 – has been heard to express his enthusiasm for the gazon (grass) this week with the phrase: “J’ai la banane sur gazon.” For the uninitiated, la banane is French slang for a big smile – and it was exactly the expression he wore as the No.1 Court crowd rose to him.
“It’s a dream,” he told the BBC as he exited the court. “It was a really good match, and he’s a good friend of mine. It wasn’t easy to be in the match in the first set because he played very fast. I’m very happy about my performance. I think playing Novak Djokovic it will be the best match of my young career. But I would like to enjoy this victory first.”
Indeed. Humbert completely drowned out all the chatter about Auger-Aliassime, of whom so much was anticipated in this match. Having begun the year ranked outside the top 100, the Canadian has reached three finals in 2019 to rocket up to No.21. One of those finals was in Stuttgart last month, despite the fact that Auger-Aliassime had never played a Tour-level match on the sward before.
He followed that with the semi-finals at Queen’s, before the first Grand Slam win of his career here in SW19 also made him the first man born after the turn of the Millennium to capture a match at any Slam – and in fact he was the first man born in the 2000s even to compete here.
The possibilities stretched before him in this third round. He was bidding to become the youngest man to reach the last 16 since – ahem – Bernard Tomic in 2011; and if he could have joined Milos Raonic in the fourth round, it would have been the first time two Canadian men had done so at a Grand Slam. Moreover, with Raonic defending quarter-final points from last year, Auger-Aliassime might even have superseded him as the Canadian No.1 here.
Ironically in this match, despite Humbert’s great age of 21, the Frenchman actually looked the younger of the two, playing as always with his cap reversed. On the other hand, he had the advantage of previous No.1 Court experience, and very recently too – on Wednesday evening on this lawn, Humbert and his doubles partner Marius Copil were on the wrong end of Andy Murray’s victorious Wimbledon return in partnership with Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Meanwhile, Humbert had genuine credentials of his own to boast, as the youngest Frenchman to reach the third round since Gael Monfils 12 years ago. Moreover, he came back from two sets down to see off “La Monf” in the first round here, albeit by dint of a fifth set retirement with injury.
He is accustomed to life’s tougher fights: having committed to tennis at age 12, he was soon unable to play at all for 18 months because of complex injuries relating to the growing bones in his arms, knees and back. But he stayed the course, and has rocketed up the rankings in the last 12 months from 290 to his current No.66 – and he is now likely to bounce up to the top 50 in reward for this win.
Yet as this match got underway all eyes were on Auger-Aliassime’s eye-catching serve, with his delivery touching 130mph (although Humbert was only 3mph behind). But the Canadian was going for rampant winners on practically every point, overcooking his efforts too frequently; meanwhile, he compounded those errors with five double faults. The fourth of those, at 3-3, gave Humbert break point, and a poor forehand beribboned the gift.
Auger-Aliassime betrayed not an atom of frustration. Instead in the second chapter he all but stamped out the errors, duly reaping the benefit with an early break. But at 5-3 he couldn’t serve it out, and Humbert delivered a gorgeous backhand at the culmination of a 16-shot rally to stay in the set. On the key points the Canadian’s game fell short, crowned by the double fault he delivered for 5-6; but there was nothing he could do about the inside out forehand from Humbert to go two sets up.
The teenager would now need to break new career ground if he was to win, having never so much as played a five-setter, never mind reversed such a deficit. But he was in trouble from the off, as Humbert broke at once to stretch his streak of successive games won to six. Auger-Aliassime never looked like recovering.
In victory, Humbert removed his reversed cap to salute the crowd – and suddenly he looked like a grown-up. One week after his 21st birthday, he has come of age.
