Ugo Humbert achieved “a childhood dream” by winning the Metz tournament

Did your victory in Halle (2021), an ATP 500 tournament, have more prestige? Ugo Humbert: Jo (Tsonga) told me: “Hall, it’s an ATP 500 but here you win at home”. Honestly, I experienced incredible emotions. I saw myself when I was little, every evening, I came to watch the matches after school and I found myself winning the tournament, it’s really crazy. The emotion is stronger than in Halle. It is perhaps one of the strongest. It was a childhood dream. This has been on my mind for years. The first years here, I was perhaps stressed, I wanted to prove something. This week, I tried to see things differently by telling myself that people were there for me, to push me, to encourage me and I wanted to offer them this moment. It’s still nice to see a Messin win in Metz. I’m super proud of that.

Do you remember your first visit to the Moselle Open?
I must have been five or six years old. I may have even seen the first edition. I saw almost all the finals. After school, I went to watch the matches. I was pionate about tennis. I wanted to see the best players in the world. I saw Djokovic win, I saw (Andy) Murray, Jo (Tsonga), my childhood idol. It inspired me, I knew what I wanted to do.

It was the fourth ATP final of your career and you have never lost one, how do you explain it?
In fact, when I played my first Challengers finals, I lost them. I then realized that a final is not played, it is won and since then, I have been good every time in the final. I tell myself that I have no choice, it’s an incredible challenge. In the end, I managed my finals very well. Each time, I had a great match and it gave a great result.

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