Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was ousted on Tuesday from the Paris Masters after losing to in-form Frenchman Ugo Humbert in a marathon second-round tie.
Humbert, who is on a seven-match winning streak after winning the Antwerp title last month, missed four match points but battled to a 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/3) victory.
He was visibly struggling in the final-set tiebreak after more than three hours on the court, but Tsitsipas said that he was also not at full fitness.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I’m just disappointed with the way I played,” said the world No. 6, who lost to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in an epic French Open semi-final last month.
“During the second set, my Roland Garros injury came back, and it wasn’t as bad as at the French Open, but it kind of had me on the edge of things — and I wasn’t sure if that’s good for me to be out there,” Tsitsipas said. “I still fought and gave my best out there.”
The 22-year-old Humbert next faces former US Open champion Marin Cilic for a place in the quarter-finals.
Tsitsipas is to defend his ATP Tour Finals title in London at the season-ending tournament, which begins on Nov. 15.
Humbert appeared poised to secure the win in the second-set breaker, but saw three match points come and go before Tsitsipas forced a decider.
Tsitsipas battled back from one break down, as the third set also went the distance, but Humbert held his nerve, taking his fifth match point with a forehand winner after seeing Tsitsipas overturn a line call on the previous point.
It was a second consecutive narrow defeat for Tsitsipas, after his loss to Grigor Dimitrov in Vienna last week.
Earlier on Tuesday, Stan Wawrinka said that he hopes to produce a “last push” in his career to challenge for tennis’ biggest titles again after beating Britain’s Dan Evans to reach the second round.
The 35-year-old won the last of his three Grand Slam titles at the 2016 US Open, but was then hit by multiple injuries and is ranked 20th in the world.
However, the Swiss thinks that he can still rediscover past glories in his final years on the ATP Tour.
“I’m close to the end of my career,” he said after beating Evans 6-3, 7-6 (7/3). “I’m going to try to even push it more during the off-season and see what next year brings.”
Wawrinka has not won an ATP event in more than three years.
“I think that, in general, my form has been going okay. It’s been going well. I’m playing well,” he added. “I still need to work on many, many aspects.”
Wawrinka next faces Tommy Paul of the US.
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