Cilic and Humbert move to round 2 of Rolex Paris Masters

Marin Cilic and Ugo Humbert moved to round 2 of the Rolex Paris Masters after great performances on Monday.

Ugo Humbert came back from losing the first set to win the match in three sets. It took him well over two hours to defeat Ruud 4-6 6-2 7-6(1). The opening set was a close one where Humbert started better and even had two break points to take the lead. He failed to use them and that gave Ruud the confidence to start playing much better. The rest of the set was without break points until Ruud got his first ones late in the set. They were also set points and the Norwegian used them to win the opening set. The 2nd set was completely dominated by Humbert who could not lose a point on his own serve. Ruud struggled on his own serve making a lot of mistakes and Ugo quickly ended the set with 6-2.

The final set was a tight one again as both played dominant tennis when serving. Neither played forced a breakpoint and we ended up in the tiebreak. In it, Ruud slipped oddly in the 3rd point and from that point on he didn't win a single point. Whether he injured himself or not is debatable but it affected him as he made several critical mistakes to give Humbert the victory.

A matchup that promised some great tennis in Auger-Aliassime vs Cilic didn't quite deliver in the first set. Marin Cilic played good tennis but Felix Auger-Aliassime looked terrible early. He could not hit a serve, he could not win a rally and Cilic just cruised to a 6-0 opening set victory. The start of the 2nd set was much better for Felix who served better and overall played better allowing him to win his service games. The match progressed nicely until we arrived at 4-3 and Cilic serving. That game lasted almost 15 minutes and it ended with Felix taking the break 5-3. Cilic had three consecutive break points to come back into the match but Felix won 5 points in a row to win the set 6-3. In the last set, the Croat prevailed again to win the match in three sets and advance to the second round of the 2020 Paris Masters.