Hubert Hurkacz is there to resist, to show that despite the slowness of the Shanghai course, a tournament in slow motion, a shooter like him can finally win the day. The Pole triumphed this Sunday by defeating the Russian Andrey Rublev 6-3, 3-6 and 7-6 (8) in 2 hours and 33 minutes, taking the second Masters 1000 race of his career the one two years ago in Miami on cement. As a good-natured guy, he lifts the trophy and mixes a smile with the characteristic gesture between humility and shyness. Beforehand, he warmly hugged his rival, who in front of the picture beat himself on the thighs with bats for the missed opportunity. Rublev is a tennis player with excellent conditions and at the same time gelatinous; As soon as the script goes a little wrong and pokes a little into the subject’s fragile mind, it tends to fall apart.
The Asian tour ends with an unexpected champion, as three names were in the spotlight beforehand. But this is tennis and it’s October, so anything can happen. Not included in the tally is Daniil Medvedev, who was the best on the course in the fast lane and came out on top against all odds in the second season of the tournament; still against Carlos Alcaraz, who was defeated in the quarterfinals by the best version of Grigor Dimitrov; Jannik Sinner didn’t even use the big momentum from Beijing, where the Italian defeated the Spaniard and won the prize after also defeating the Russian. Nothing at all, no favorites. The one lying down in Shanghai with the ghost of a child and posing with the trophy is the giant Hurkacz, lanky like him. A cannonball champion. There are 98 aces in these two weeks, 21 of which are in the epilogue.
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He finishes the work of these days after a shaky duel with the unstable Rublev, who was at first overwhelmed, then recovered and finally condemned by his nerves and that lack of self-confidence that prevented him from daring to jump higher and to greater heights to think. He has 14 trophies, no small record, but once again he gives in on a bigger stage, falling for the third time as a result of a 1000. He won in Monte Carlo this year and it was thought that this was perhaps the most prestigious victory in the principality It would definitely help to break the corset and gradually scare away the demons. But not even for this one. They are all there, alive and well around him. The one from Moscow – 25 years old and now fifth best in the world – is still in this internal struggle. After accomplishing the difficult task of balancing the game after surviving the avalanche, he collapsed after missing two or three seemingly easy shots in the final tiebreaker, in which he also had a match point.
In the fourth attempt he completes his opponent Hurkacz, a player with limited registration but who is always a threat on cement. He is not a virtuoso, but when he is enthusiastic with his serve, he is able not only to overcome difficulties, but also to find his way and win great trophies. With his second Masters 1000, the Wroclaw resident is, according to the ATP, the seventh active tennis player to have more than one in singles form. The Pole, 26 years old and ranked 11th in the world as of tomorrow, appears in the tertiary level of a photo, on the banner of the likes of Alcaraz (4), Alexander Zverev (5), Medvedev (6), Andy Murray (14), Rafael Nadal (36) and of course Novak Djokovic (39), also the king of thousands. The Serb is watching relaxed from the couch these days, sharpening his claws as he waits to land on the European indoor tour, in his case Paris-Bercy and the Turin Masters Cup.
“It was a round trip,” describes the winner in front of the eyes of Roger Federer, who was present in the background and looked elegant even when the Swiss was sleeping. “Andrey suffered severe blows, but I tried to respond to him. I kept the faith and I’m happy with how I handled the tiebreak,” says Hurkaz, who got rid of Thanasi Kokkinakis, Yu Hsiou Hsu, Zhang Zhizhen, Fabián Marozsán and Sebastian Korda in the last few days before giving up the score. by Rublev. He succeeds Medvedev – winner in 2019 before there were three further cancellations due to the coronavirus – and is fully involved in the fight for a place in the top 8 event of the season from November 12th to 19th Turin part. The success in China means he is now just 335 points behind Dane Holger Rune, who finished eighth in the annual race; Casper Ruud (with 315) and Taylor Fritz (with only 145) are other candidates who have applied.
GRANOLLERS, CHAMPIONS IN DOUBLE
AC
The double modality left good news this Sunday in Shanghai, where the Catalan Marcel Granollers and the Argentine Horacio Zeballos won the title by defeating the Indian Rohan Bopanna and the Australian Matthew Ebden in the final with 5-7, 6-2 and 10-7 defeated. In this way, both are at full strength at the Masters 1000: they have won the five finals they have contested so far. They previously celebrated in Montreal (2019), Rome (2020), Madrid and Cincinnati (2021).
The victory, the eighth they have achieved, virtually guarantees their presence in the main event in Turin. The Spaniard and his partner are in fourth place in the two-up race and are currently 1,500 points above the ticket-granting cutoff.
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