{"id":459203,"date":"2026-02-05T03:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459203\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T03:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:19:16","slug":"ugo-humbert-loses-after-suddenly-stopping-second-round-match-to-pick-up-phone-at-open-occitanie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/459203\/","title":{"rendered":"Ugo Humbert loses after suddenly stopping second-round match to pick up phone at Open Occitanie"},"content":{"rendered":"

French tennis<\/a> star Ugo Humbert has coughed up three match points before going down in a bizarre third-set tiebreak interrupted by the sudden need to check his phone.<\/p>\n

The world No.38, knocked out in the first round of the Australian Open<\/a> last month, was one point from his second win on the trot at the Open Occitanie in Montpellier.<\/p>\n

But countryman Adrian Mannarino staved off defeat, held serve and went on to push the match into a tiebreak \u2014 where more drama quickly unfolded.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Mannarino, a former top-20 star now ranked 70th, claimed the first three points only for Humbert to reel off four straight.<\/p>\n

Only instead of pumping himself up before preparing to serve, he immediately walked over to the bench and began rifling through his bag.<\/p>\n

Humbert eventually picked up his phone and looked at the screen for a brief second before putting it down and offering a quick wave to apologise to Mannarino and the umpire.<\/p>\n

The delay, though, proved more of a disruption for Humbert as he conceded the next four points \u2014 and the match \u2014 to Mannarino.<\/p>\n

Mannarino looked relieved as he turned to the crowd for a low-key celebration at the end of his longest match since September, having wrapped up the 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 7-6 (7-4) win in nearly three hours.<\/p>\n

Tennis stars are quick to reach for their phones after matches, with Australian Open champion Carlos Alcaraz seen on his device while officials set up for the trophy presentation following Sunday night\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

Australian Open junior champion Ksenia Efremova also reached for her phone to immediately jump on a video call with her mother in France while she celebrated on court and with her team.<\/p>\n

But Humbert\u2019s decision to stop play at such a crucial moment to pick up his phone is unusual.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka received a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct last year when she used one of her team member\u2019s phones to snap a photo of a disputed ball mark at a clay-court tournament.<\/p>\n

On the lighter end, there was laughter all round \u2014 including from opponent Novak Djokovic \u2014 when Corentin Moutet\u2019s phone alarm went off during a match in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman attempted to continue serving under the assumption it was a fan\u2019s alarm before he realised the situation.<\/p>\n

Moutet ran to stop the alarm and jokingly answered a call.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

John McEnroe winds back clock with old school outburst at airport<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Tennis star forced to retire after suffering mid-match eye injury<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French tennis star Ugo Humbert has coughed up three match points before going down in a bizarre third-set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,1625,3863,588,85,747],"class_list":["post-459203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lifestyle","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}