#NextGenATP Humbert Continues Grass-Court Success In Newport

#NextGenATP Frenchman Ugo Humbert kept up his outstanding grass-court form on Friday at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, advancing to the semi-finals over Belarusian Ilya Ivashka 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

Humbert, seeded fourth, raced through the final four games of the match to prevail in two hours and 26 minutes. The 20-year-old defeated fellow #NextGenATP player Felix Auger-Aliassime to reach the fourth round earlier this month at Wimbledon, marking his best result at a Grand Slam. Humbert, who recorded his maiden ATP Tour semi-final this February on home soil in Marseille, cracked the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings this week.

Next up for the Frenchman is top-seeded American John Isner, who hammered 24 aces to defeat Australian Matthew Edben 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The match was a repeat of their 2017 final, which Isner also prevailed in. The American now leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 5-1 and has won all three of their grass-court matches. Isner is seeking his fourth title in Newport (2011-2012, 2017).

Marcel Granollers continued his Newport success with a convincing 6-3, 6-0 win in his rain-delayed match with German Mischa Zverev. The Spaniard took the first set before showers halted play on Thursday, but he returned with a vengeance and dropped just eight points in the second set. Granollers is through to his first ATP Tour semi-final since this event last year.

He’ll now play seventh seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, who scored his first ATP Tour semi-final by surviving a wild 0-6, 6-3, 6-0 battle with American Tennys Sandgren. After losing 10 of the last 12 points in the opening set, Bublik dropped only five points in the final set.

The 22-year-old Bublik has primarily competed on the ATP Challenger Tour and picked up four Challenger titles in the past year. He’s guaranteed to surpass his career-high ATP Ranking of No. 82 on Monday.