Jannik Sinner led Ugo Humbert 6-3, 1-0 at Montecarlo after taking the first set when Humbert sent the ball wide on set point.
The opening began awkwardly for Sinner, who started with a double fault and then struck an ace, before Humbert also coughed up a double fault in a match carried live on Sky pay channels. Sky held the exclusive ATP circuit rights, putting the Montecarlo meeting in front of viewers as Sinner tried to extend his lead over an opponent with whom he had been level in the head-to-head.
The two had split their first meetings. Humbert beat Sinner in the 2019 Next Gen Finals round robin, 4-3, 3-4, 4-2, 4-2, and Sinner answered with a 6-2, 6-4 win at the 2021 Internazionali d’Italia. That matters because Montecarlo came at a point when Sinner had already built a deep resume — 26 titles, including four Grand Slam titles and seven Masters 1000 titles — but still had not won a major tournament on clay.
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His only clay-court title was the 250 event in Umago in 2022. He reached the final in Rome last year and at the Internazionali, but lost both times to Carlos Alcaraz, leaving the surface as the one major gap in a career that has otherwise moved at speed. This is why Montecarlo drew interest beyond a single set score: it was another chance to see whether Sinner could translate his overall dominance onto clay.
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For Humbert, the wide forehand on set point was the costly mistake in a tight opening stretch. For Sinner, the better sign was not the scoreboard alone but how quickly he recovered from the first-point double fault and settled the match. If he keeps that level on clay, the next phase of his season will be judged less by what he has already won and more by whether this surface finally yields the one title missing from his list.
