“I’m extremely happy to have played in this final,” Humbert told his supporters afterward. “To have my family and team with me the whole week has been incredible. It’s for moments like this why I do this every day, why I train.”
Humbert’s dream ended in part because his lanky body ran out of energy, and his racquet ran out of low-percentage magic. But it ended in larger part because he played a superior opponent, who was at the end of his own confidence-building week, and season.
A year ago, these two played on the same court, and Zverev edged Humbert in a third-set tiebreaker. But that was the Zverev of 12 months ago, before he won a tour-leading 66 matches in 2024, made the Roland Garros final and Australian Open semifinals, and won a Masters 1000 in Rome.
Other than that title, though, this has been a close-but-not-quite year for the German. On Sunday, he completed the job with perhaps his cleanest big-match performance of the year. He won 21 of 23 points on his first serve, made just six unforced errors, and didn’t face a break point. According to Zverev, the best thing he did was keep the fans safely in their seats by breaking early in each set.
