The French No.1 Ugo Humbert, easy winner in the second round of the Russian Pavel Kotov (64th) 6-4, 6-1, has an appointment in the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 tournament in Doha with Gaël Monfils (68th), scorer from Chinese Zhang Zhizhen (48th) 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/2), Wednesday.
Humbert put in a set, the first, hanging, to take the full measure of Kotov and fly away in the second round.
Forgotten the misadventure of elimination as soon as he entered the fray in Rotterdam last week for the French left-hander (18th in the world), titled in Marseille at the beginning of February, who will find Gaël Monfils for a place in the semi-finals. He held on and showed great virtues of courage, after losing the first set, to beat the tough Zhang Zhizhen in three sets 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/2).
Monfils (68th) resisted the onslaught of Zhang Zhizhen before giving him the final blow in a decisive game in the third set which he won 7 points to 2. The Chinese had nevertheless taken the lead by pocketing the first set on a shutout and thanks to an ace, in the wake of a successful break at 4-4.
In the second, Monfils, on the tightrope, held off Zhang, more lively and sharp but also guilty of big unforced errors, before finding the opening in the form of two set points at 6-5, obtained thanks to to a double fault from the opponent.
After equalizing at one set everywhere, the “Monf” made the break at the start of the decisive round. But Zhang immediately recovered, only to admit defeat in the tie-break, after 2 hours 23 minutes of play.
Humbert, who won their first two confrontations, will face Monfils, titled in Doha in 2018, for the third time. A third Frenchman was in the running, Richard Gasquet (126th), like Monfils, 37 years old. The Biterrois, who had signed against the Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko (45th) his first victory in the 1st round of an ATP tournament since Winston-Salem last August, suffered the law of the Russian Andrey Rublev, 5th in the world and seeded N. 1, winner 6-3, 6-4.
In this match where he tried to limit the length of the rallies and which lasted less than an hour, Gasquet did not obtain any break points. Rublev got four and made two.
