Another left-hander showdown

After Atmane/Tabilo, it’s another French left-hander who will take on one of the favorites in this same section of the draw.

This kind of match is a bit tricky because the two players didn’t have the same kind of first round at all. It’s a bit hard to rely on that to be sure of anything afterwards. Humbert benefited from a good draw against the qualifier Martin, who absolutely doesn’t have any weapons against his game. He won fairly easily, even though he could have finished with a proper thumping. He tightened up a bit at the end of the match and wasted a small lead before tightening the screws again. Nothing crazy, and I even think it’s a nice little wake‑up call in a first round to remind yourself you really have to stay focused no matter the score. In any case, it was a great performance from the Frenchman and we know what he’s like when he’s motivated, when the conditions are quick, and when he manages to transcend himself. He’s a top, top player. And on top of that, he’s up against a local next round, and not just anyone. We’re talking about Shelton, who spends his time yelling and hyping himself up like a madman, which will also fire Ugo up.

It was a completely different story for Shelton in the first round against his compatriot Damm, with a match marred by a rain delay. Shelton started off fairly well, the level was decent, but after the interruption he came back sloppy, lost the second set, and even went a break down. I really thought he was going to lose, but it only took a few small mistakes from Damm, who didn’t really have that killer instinct, and Shelton, as usual, stayed clutch and clinical. On the other hand, in terms of level of play, it was consistently average. He was harmless on return, made a huge number of errors, and in that first round even his serving wasn’t anything special. The American did manage to win a title on grass, but there too, he was just incredibly clinical and clutch.

I’m absolutely not convinced by his level of play, but you can’t take away from him that he always has an incredible attitude, and he said this week that his family was there and that it was a little dream of his to go win a title in Washington. Even with a mediocre level, he’s going to be hard to beat. Is Humbert capable of doing it? I’m inclined to say yes, in the sense that the Frenchman has the potential level of play to beat him, that’s for sure. There’s also that clutch aspect, which was part of Humbert’s reputation for a while. I think this current version of Shelton is not scary at all and that any potential value won’t be on his side.