Just as the WTA 125 Mumbai Open and ATP 500 Dallas Open 2024 reached their semi-final stages, another ATP 250 Series Tour has also reached the semi-finals. The Open 13 Provence or the Marseille Open will see defending champion Hubert Hurkacz vs Ugo Humbert in its first of two semi-finals. Karen Khachanov and Grigor Dimitrov play in the second semi-final. It will be a riveting contest.
Hubert Hurkacz vs Ugo Humbert will take place on the hard indoor courts of Palais des Sports de Marseille. The attendance reaches up to 5,800 capacity. The match will happen today at 4:30 pm local time in Marseille.
The champion of the 2023 edition of Open 13, Hubert Hurkacz has brought his supreme form straight into this season. Hurkacz went from beating Benjamin Bonzi 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) in last year’s finals to defeating Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of this year’s edition. He is the top-seeded player and hence he got a ‘Bye’ to the second round directly. He then beat Tomas Machac 6-3, 6-4 in the semi-finals. Hurkacz entered this tournament on the back of his quarter-final finish at the opening Majors.
Ugo Humbert missed out on last year’s Open 13 edition. However, he has done well to reach the semi-finals this year. As a fourth-seeded player Humbert too directly played in the second round. There he won against fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. He continued his stellar form into the quarter-finals, where he beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-1, 6-4. Humbert had a great last year, winning the 2023 Sardegna Open, The BNP Paribas Primrose Bordeaux, and also defeated fellow countryman Adrian Mannarino, who is currently scheduled to face Marcos Giron in the Dallas Open semi-finals, in the French Open 2023.
Hurkacz is currently world no. 8, whereas Humbert’s rank is 21. With a clear difference in results, rank, and recent performances, The Sports Rush predicts Hubert Hurkacz to win the Hubert Hurkacz vs Ugo Humbert contest and qualify for the finals. Humbert caused an upset last year beating better-ranked Adrian Mannarino. He will have to pull something like that out of his bag once again to beat Hurkacz. The Hurkacz vs Humbert odds are in the Pole’s favor, at 1.57 vis-a-vis 2.25 for Humbert as per Pokerstars.
The Hubert Hurkacz vs Ugo Humbert contest has always gone one way
The Hubert Hurakacz vs Ugo Humbert clashes have happened thrice in the past. All three times, Hurkacz was too good for his opponent Humbert. The first time they met was in June 2022 at the Noventi Open in Halle, where Hurkacz won 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. A year and a half later, they met again at Swiss Indoor in Basel. This time Hurkacz won 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5). And most recently, they met at the Australian Open 2024, where Humbert put up a stellar fight. But in the end, it was Hurkacz who won by 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.
History is completely on the side of Hurakacz and so is The Tennis Tonic website, which picks the Polish player to win in 3. The weather in Marseille is quite cold at 14 degrees Celsius. The wind speed is higher at 35 km/h and precipitation is 100% with a chance of rainfall. However, if the match happens as scheduled, Hurakacz should win it comfortably.
