Frenchman Ugo Humbert, 18th in the world (ATP ranking here), beat world No.4 Daniil Medvedev in the semi-final of the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai on Friday and will face Kazakh Alexander Bublik to try to win a 6th title on the circuit. Humbert continues his good start to the season after his victory at the ATP 250 tournament in Marseille at the beginning of February. He impressed again to get rid of the Russian, finalist of the last Australian Open, 7-5, 6-3.
The 25-year-old Mosellan qualifies for the sixth final of his career, having won each time he has reached this stage of the competition in an ATP tournament. After Hubert Hurkacz (world No.8) in the quarter-final, the French No.1 dominates another member of the Top 10 and will face an a priori more affordable opponent in the final, the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, 23rd. Thanks to this qualification, and regardless of the result in the final on Saturday, Humbert will be at least 15th in the world rankings published on Monday, his best place in the ATP.
The Frenchman delivered a very solid match to erase Medvedev, who returned to the courts in Dubai a month after his final lost against the Italian Jannik Sinner in Melbourne. Humbert made the difference at the end of the first set to win the first set 7-5, before resisting the Russian, more inspired in the second, to break away and win. The winner of the ATP 500 tournament in Halle (on grass) in 2021 has won three of his four meetings against Medvedev.
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He will face Bublik for the first time to conclude a superb week, where he took out his compatriot Gaël Monfils before ousting the Briton Andy Murray and bringing down Hurkacz and Medvedev, with a record now of four victories for three losses against the players of the Top 5. “It will be an interesting match, I will try to win and maintain this good statistic,” he said in reference to his 5/5 in tournament finals.
Bublik got his place on the last step thanks to the bloodshed of another Russian, Andrey Rublev, disqualified for having yelled at a linesman when the score was 6-7 (4/7), 7- 6 (7/5), 6-5 in favor of the 26-year-old Kazakh.