Big disappointment this Monday on the Queen’s lawn for Ugo Humbert. The Messin, who had left the S’Hertogenbosch tournament in the second round last week, fell from the start this time, after his defeat against the Briton Ryan Peniston, ranked 265th in the world but quarter-finalist in the tournament last season.
This is called falling from above. Already last week, on the Dutch grass of S’Hertogenbosch, Ugo Humbert, for his grass debut this season, did not really shine, since he had not gone further than the second round, despite a very good resistance against the Finnish Emil Ruusuvuori, winner that day in three sets. The Messin hoped to do better at Queen’s, he who had never yet participated in the famous London meeting and ideal preparation for the Wimbledon tournament. Unfortunately for the 37th in the world and still number 1 in France, he did even worse than in the Netherlands, and his debut at Queen’s turned into a fiasco.
Humbert indeed tripped over the mat in his first match this time, when the draw had reserved a largely takeable opponent for him, since the winner of the Challenger tournament in Bordeaux at the dawn of Roland-Garros had Opposite him on Monday is the 27-year-old British player Ryan Peniston, ranked 265th in the world. Admittedly, the latter, used to the Challenger circuit even if he played Roland-Garros (elimination in the 2nd round) and the Australian Open (defeat in the 1st round) is not totally unknown, since he had reached in 2022 the quarter-finals twice: at Eastbourne and at… Queen’s, where he had Casper Ruud, the finalist of the last Roland-Garros, scalped at the start.
Humbert dominated in both sets
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🗣️ Oh @ryanhpenwe love you! 🗣️
Representing on home soil ❤️🏡@QueenTennis | #cinchChampionships pic.twitter.com/qw2DxVoOxo
— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 19, 2023
This time, it was therefore Humbert’s turn to bear the brunt of the ease of the native of Southend-On-Sea on this court, where he had crunched the world number 4 then Francisco Cerundolo (19th) in stride. Much stronger than the Frenchman in this match, Peniston took off in both sets to finally win 6-4, 6-2 and add another feat to his CV. “I love playing here, I love this place and maybe it gives me a lot of confidence to play against players of this level in this atmosphere, because I always have a lot of support from the public. »
The story does not say if Humbert had been warned that his executioner of the day was the darling of the local spectators. Still, he is no longer in the tournament. And that is quite a disappointment.
