By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Sunday, February 16, 2025
Ugo Humbert successfully defended his Marseille championship with a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over unseeded Hamad Medjedovic in today’s final.
Photo credit: Corinne Dubreuil/Marseille Open Provence 13 Facebook
Racing toward the back wall, Ugo Humbert hugged out his championship moment.
Moments after Humbert successfully defended his Marseille championship with a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over unseeded Hamad Medjedovic in today’s final, he ran over to embrace a long line of coaches, family, friends and well wishers leaning over the back blue wall.
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The second-seeded Frenchman thrilled home fans saving a set point at 5-6 then commanding the tiebreaker en route to his eighth straight Marseille Open victory.
Sliding his left serve wide creating acute angles on the ad side, Humbert hammered 13 aces against no double faults and surrendered just six points on first serve.
Put a roof over Humbert’s head and he’ll respond with command. Humbert has now won 18 of his last 19 matches played on French soil indoors. That superb surge includes title runs at 2023 Metz, 2024 and 2025 Marseille as well as his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final at the Rolex Paris Masters last November.
It is Humbert’s seventh career title as he becomes the first Frenchman to successfully defend Marseille and first man since Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2020 to win back-to-back Marseille championships.
The 96th-ranked Medjedovic knocked off top-seeded Daniil Medvedev in yesterday’s semifinals and made a push late in the opening set today but came up short in his bid for a maiden Tour-level title. Humbert broke for 2-1.
Scalding his sixth ace down the T, Humbert capped a love hold for a 3-1 lead.
Rhythmic clapping from French fans amplified Humbert’s serving aggression. The French left-hander fired through his second love hold, extending his lead to 5-3 after just 28 minutes of play.
Two games later, Humbert served for the first set, but labored to land first serves. Medjedovic made him pay, winning the best point of the match with a high forehand volley then drawing successive errors to break back for 5-all.
The tide completely turned as Medjedovic gained a set point in the 12th game.
Belting a bold slider second serve, Humbert saved set point, eventually holding to force the tiebreaker with a raised fist for roaring French fans.
Lifting his level, Humbert fired a flurry of winners, curling a crosscourt forehand then slamming his ninth ace to go up 5-1 in the breaker. Medjedovic won three points in a row to narrow the gap.
Cracking successive stinging serves, including a biting second serve on set point, Humbert closed a tight 54-minute opener.
The defending champion smacked nine aces with no double faults, saving a set point at 5-6 along the way.
Bidding to become the lowest-ranked champion in Marseille history, Medjedovic was put to a severe test serving at 2-3 in the second set.
The 26-year-old Humbert earned three break points in that draining game. Medjedovic stood up to stress with aggression, smacking a forehand drive volley winner, a drop volley winner off a surprise serve-volley and coaxing an error to deny all three break points. Medjedovic, who had already broken strings in two different racquets to that point, capped a hard-fought hold for 3-all.
Credit Medjedovic for one of the finest tournament performances of his young career—and for fighting hard against the defending champion and French fans. The 21-year-old Serbian’s inexperience showed in the final game when Medjedovic unraveled and donated the game and the break at love.
Dumping his fifth double fault then skipping a diagonal forehand off the tape put Medjedovic down triple championship point.
Humbert paused with a finger to his ear inciting French fans to make more noise. Rapping a deep return down the middle, Humbert tomahawked one final forehand to seal his successful Marseille title defense in 100 minutes.