"A breakthrough can immediately take you to a Grand Slam final," Simon discusses the current generation in tennis

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Adrien Guyot

le 04/06/2025 à 12h25

2 min to read

Humbert Simon

Gilles Simon is a former world No. 6. A quarterfinalist at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, the Frenchman was part of the 'Four Musketeers' generation alongside Gaël Monfils, Richard Gasquet, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Like many other players, he experienced the Big 3 at their peak, when they dominated nearly all major titles on the tour.

In a recent interview with our colleagues at *Univers Tennis*, the 40-year-old from Nice, who retired after the 2022 Paris-Bercy Masters, shared his thoughts on the current tour.

"We have a lot of very good players (in France), but it’s also a question of timing. For example, I’m still convinced that a player like Ugo Humbert can always pull off something huge.

When he’s in the right zone with his game—even if he sometimes has limitations on certain surfaces or under certain conditions—when he’s at his best, he’s tough to beat, even for the very best players in the world.

Could he one day go all the way at Wimbledon or something like that? It’s not impossible. I feel like the tour is very deep, but there are slightly fewer walls now than we had in our generation.

A breakthrough, taking out one player, can immediately put you in a Grand Slam final. For us, we had to beat three. There was a repetition of upsets required to win, which made it a bit harder. Today, I feel like (Humbert) is capable, in a single match, of beating Alcaraz," Simon analyzed.