The official app of the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN

31st TERRA WORTMANN OPEN June 15th to 23rd 2024

TICKET CENTER +49 5201 81 80
Monday - Friday 11 am to 5pm 
(at Sportpark, Gausekampweg 2, Halle/Westf.)

The Title-holder is outsider again

Ugo Humbert has experienced hard months after his triumph in 2021. Now he hopes to surprise again.

A forehand along the line and Ugo Humbert sank down onto the lawn in Halle. You can call it a small sensation that the then 22-year-old French player won the title at Germany’s largest grass tournament 2021.  Excellent technics, nerves like steel, the ability to read his opponents ‘game, and nimble feet made him an unbeatable opponent – even for top ten players Alexander Zverev, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Andrey Rublev. Nobody was able to stop the man with the ever mischievous smile: “I have enjoyed every moment on the court this week and am very proud of this title”, Humbert said at the press conference after his triumph. 

But then – began, what can happen to some summiteers: a hard phase with lots of setbacks. Perhaps it would have been different if he had won the three-and-a-half long battle on the holy lawn of Wimbledon against Australian Nick Kyrgios just a few weeks after the triumph in Halle. But Humbert was defeated 7:9 in the fifth set and failed in the first round. 

The man from Metz was heard once more, however, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, by kicking out Stefanos Tsitsipas, amongst others, and not dropping out until the round of last 8, but then disappointment was followed by more disappointments.  

One first round blow followed the next, before Humbert then broke off the season prematurely. He speculated about side-effects of a covid19 vaccination, spoke of his medical practitioners not being sure to rule out a connection. “After 45 minutes or an hour of tennis I had severe cramps everywhere, and at the end of the season it was hard for me to do any training”, he said. 

2022 then began with a glow of hope: the winner of Halle defeated Daniil Medwedew at the ATP Cup. It was to be the only victory for weeks. At the Australian Open he dropped out in the first round, accompanied by a positive covid19 test. First round losses followed also in Montpellier, Rotterdam and Indian Wells, later also in Monte Carlo, Rom, at the French Open and this week in Stuttgart. His match balance for 2022 is 4:13. An adductor injury didn’t help, either. 

The irony of tennis history: last year’s title-holder in Halle enters the tournament as an outsider again. But perhaps this role fits again at the 29. TERRA WORTMANN OPEN. "If you carry on working like this, you will have a great career“, his opponent of last year, Andrey Rublev had observed. By the way, Humbert has done his first training in Halle with a player who is on his way to being a young summiteer, too – Dane Holger Rune. 

In 2021 Ugo Humbert was not to be defeated on the grass at Halle. © TERRA WORTMANN OPEN/Mathias Schulz