French tennis star Ugo Humbert uses his phone mid-match only to lose

Dubai: In a bizarre moment that quickly became the talking point of the night, French tennis star Ugo Humbert paused play at a critical stage of his match to check his phone — a decision that preceded a dramatic collapse at the Open Occitanie in Montpellier.

Humbert ultimately fell to fellow Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-7 (4), despite being just one point away from securing his second consecutive win at the tournament. Ranked No 38 in the world, Humbert appeared to be in control before Mannarino, a former top-20 player now ranked 70th, fought off match point, held serve and forced a deciding tiebreak.

Mannarino surged ahead by claiming the first three points of the breaker, only for Humbert to respond with four in a row. But instead of building momentum ahead of his serve, Humbert unexpectedly walked to his bench and began searching through his bag. He briefly checked his phone, then offered a quick apologetic wave to both Mannarino and the chair umpire before resuming play.

The interruption proved costly. Humbert went on to lose the next four points — and the match — as Mannarino closed out a remarkable comeback.

The incident immediately sparked backlash online, with some fans accusing Humbert of match-fixing.

“After going up 4-3 with serve in the deciding tiebreak, Humbert randomly stops play to check his phone and loses the next four points and the match,” one fan wrote on social media. “How do you explain this?”

Another questioned the timing of the decision, adding: “I just want to know what the purpose of that was. Why couldn’t he wait until after the match, which was literally minutes away?”