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At the end of the season, Hubert Hurkacz was in good shape. After good matches, he advanced to the final in Shanghai, where he met Andrey Rublev. It was their fifth duel.
The balance was restricted until Sunday. Three of these matches were held at Masters 1000 tournaments – in Rome (2020) and Miami (2021), Hurkacz was victorious, while Rublev won in Indian Wells (2022). The Russian also defeated the Polish in the semi-finals of the competition in Dubai (2022).
Great start for Hurkacz
They also both won the Masters 1000 title each, with the Pole victorious in Miami in 2021, and the Russian won this season in Monte Carlo.
In the final in Shanghai, Hurkacz served confidently from the start, not allowing his opponent a single break point. In the sixth match of the first group, he took advantage of Rublev’s weakness. He took serve and led 4-2. After a while he won the set 6:3 and finally served an ace. The Pole lost only five points on his serve. The set lasted 32 minutes.
His performance was admired from the stands by Roger Federer himself, who came to China to promote the tournament.
Competitor pressure
Unfortunately, the 26-year-old lost concentration early in the second game. However, Rublev pressed harder, knowing that he had to make up for the losses. This time Hurkacz was the first to break through. As a result, after a few minutes he was losing 0:3. The Russian was serving better and better. He won as many as 10 out of 11 balls after the first serve. Break initially I decided on the further path. The men were winning their serve games until the end of the match, so the set went to the Russian 6:3.
The Wrocław native has been waiting a long time for his chance in the next group. Leading 5-4, he won the first ball of the match with a pass from the Russian. The opponent defended with a crushing blow, and after a while leveled the score at 5:5.
The men added two extra games on their serve, so the winner was decided by a tie-break, with Rublev leading 5-2 from the start. Then he had the match ball, but he didn’t use it. In the end, Hurkacz won the tiebreaker 10-8, and the entire match was full of twists and turns 6-3, 3-6, 7-6.
The winner will receive $1.26 million, and the final loser will receive $662,000.
Final result in Shanghai:
Hubert Hurkacz – Andrey Rublev 6:3, 3:6, 7:6
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