Plucky Eubanks beats Humbert in Auckland battle

Ugo Humbert’s three-year reign as Auckland Open champion came to an end yesterday as Christopher Eubanks defeated the Frenchman 7-6(4) 7-6(3) with sixth-seeded American John Isner also exiting the Australian Open warm-up tournament in the first round.Humbert won the event, his first success on the ATP tour, when it was last played in 2020 but lost out to the American qualifier in a pair of tiebreaks."I was playing some pretty good balls throughout the course of the match and I think being comfortable and playing a lot of tiebreakers in a lot of my games showed a pretty good effect today, so I’m pretty happy,” said Eubanks.The Auckland Open has returned after a two-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic but yesterday’s matches were moved indoors and played without fans due to the impending arrival of Cyclone Hale.The day opened with Isner, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2018, crashing out when he lost in three sets to Gregoire Barrere. Barrere won the tie 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-3 to overcome the big-serving American, who was defeated despite firing down 56 aces.Eubanks will next face Belgium’s David Goffin while Barrere meets fellow Frenchman Constant Lestienne in the second round.Meanwhile, Australia’s Alex de Minaur continued his impressive early season form by defeating former world number three Dominic Thiem 6-4 6-4 in the Kooyong Classic exhibition event.The win comes a week after de Minaur defeated defending Australian Open champion Rafa Nadal at the United Cup in Sydney.Thiem says body has healedDominic Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion, will play at the Australian Open, where he was a finalist in 2020, after gaining a wildcard entry as he continues his comeback from a wrist injury. "The body is good and has healed, last year was a good step in the right direction,” said the Austrian, who pushed Novak Djokovic to five sets in the 2020 Australian Open final. "I hope I can continue in that direction this year, hopefully the Open is a good start.”The former world number three has shown encouraging signs on his return to the tour, rising from outside the top 350 to breach the top 100 this week after semi-final runs last year at Gstaad, Gijon and Antwerp. His rapid ranking rise meant he only narrowly missed directly qualifying for the main draw of the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne on Monday. But he was handed a wildcard entry and after twice fighting back from a break down against De Minaur, remains optimistic about his chances."I’m ready to go at the Grand Slam but I don’t know how good I am at the moment,” he said. "It’s very difficult to go deep in a Slam, all of the players are on a high level. But I had a good preparation so I should be ready - we’ll see.”He added that the injury was "an interesting experience, probably every top athlete will face at least one major injury during a career”. "My wildcard is a big honour and also a big possibility (to do well). If I have the chance to make some damage, we will see if I can make that happen,” he said. "I’m glad I’ve left my injury behind, the body feels good.”