Gael Monfils bested Ugo Humbert easily last week in Doha, but today was revenge day for the fellow Frenchman as he won in three sets at the 2024 Dubai Championships.
Monfils had no issues beating Humbert last week in Doha as he put together a really solid week of tennis. The veteran is proving more than capable of hanging with some of the best players in the world, even though he's far from his best.
This match was a bit different even though initially it kind of looked very similar to their previous one. Despite not being the youngest anymore, Monfils still has great anticipation and gets too many balls.
Players like Humbert can struggle with that at times because they like to play aggressively, but there is such a thing as being too aggressive. That happened in the opening set, where Humbert misfired a bit too often.
That was enough for the veteran to win 6-4. The second set opened badly for Monfils, who left the court in the second game because he needed to throw up.
He would return and continue the match but didn't play as sharply as in the set before. Humbert was a bit more precise with his shots, and it proved enough to win the set 6-3. Monfils struggled greatly on the second serve, and that was a theme for the final set as well.
Humbert was just much better at reading the game, and that could have been expected after their previous meeting. He once again outshined the veteran in the final set, though Monfils greatly helped because he was all over the place.
In the end, it was a solid revenge for Humbert, who finished the match off, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to secure the next round of the Dubai Championships. It was a solid showing from Monfils, but not enough today.
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