Khachanov unhappy with Humbert’s attitude: “I told him to be a little more respectful”

Karen Khachanov looked exhausted and on the ropes when he was finally knocked out 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-3 by France’s Ugo Humbert in the semi-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters. Injured at 2-2 in the third set, the 2018 Paris Masters champion was unable to play to his full level , conceding the last 11 points of a fight that he finished by walking, and by “foregoing” the match point.

The Russian took advantage of the handshake at the net to say a few words to his French opponent, whose attitude he obviously did not appreciate and found a little too demonstrative for his taste.

“I told him at the net to be a little more calm and respectful,” Khachanov revealed after the match in the mixed zone interaction with the media. “(He has) no idea how to behave. I always play fair and I willl congratulate him if he behaves like a normal person.”

The Russian’s implication is that this was not the case. Khachanov did not like the fact that his opponent started to increase his efforts to fire up the crowd at the end of the match, when he was in great physical pain.

“Yesterday, during my semi-final against Grigor (Dimitrov), he was exhausted, did you see me jumping and screaming ‘Allez’ after every point?” Khachanov continued. “You can play with the crowd, I have no problem with that. You can celebrate after with the crowd. But not when you see your opponent on the ground.. okay, see you next time…”

Champion in Almaty two weeks ago and runner-up in Vienna last Sunday, Karen Khachanov is certainly paying for the extra energy he has spent on court to get back in the saddle, after a few difficult months in terms of results (“It was mental, I was putting too much pressure on myself”). Out of the Moselle Open next week, the Russian deserves to take a holiday… but probably not with Ugo Humbert!!

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