Europe 1 with AFP 18:21 p.m., April 09, 2023

Ugo Humbert clinched his ticket to the main draw of the Masters 1000 of Monte-Carlo on Sunday, unlike Benoît Paire and Luca van Assche who failed in the second round of qualifying. Richard Gasquet and Benjamin Bonzi were already qualified.

Ugo Humbert (79th in the world) qualified for the main draw of the Monte-Carlo tournament. The French tennis player got rid of the finalist of the 2019 edition, the Serbian Dusan Lajovic (68th), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the last round of qualifying. In two participations, he has not yet reached the second round of the main draw where he joins Richard Gasquet (42nd) and Benjamin Bonzi (50th), the only two Frenchmen directly integrated this year.

Humbert will face Italy's Lorenzo Sonego (47th). Gasquet will face Dominic Thiem (111th but former world No. 3 and two-time finalist at Roland Garros 2018 and 2019), and Bonzi will play Bernabe Zapata (43rd). On Sunday, Paire (164th) served twice for the match before finally losing 2-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 to Australian Alexei Popyrin (95th).

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Happiness to play again

The Frenchman showed his happiness to play big tournaments again after his victory the day before in the first round of qualifications against his compatriot Grégoire Barrère (62nd), he who has lived years of post-covid doubt that saw him plunge in the rankings. But on Sunday, he failed to come within two points of the main draw. While he clearly dominated Popyrin and seemed to be heading for a victory as quiet as convincing by having broken away 6-2, 5-1, the Avignon native could not conclude.

He notably missed a backhand at 5-4 and 30/30 in the deciding set that would have given him a match ball. For his part, the French hope van Assche (91st) fell 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 against the Russian Ivan Gakhov (186th) who had already released a Blue Saturday, Adrian Mannarino.