The Pole has had an incredible last 12 months on the challenger circuit, improving his game and now finds himself in new territory as he plays his first main draw grand slam match against Tennys Sandgren.
This time one year ago, Hubert Hurkacz was struggling at the Mestre challenger where he lost to Jurgen Zopp, another main draw entrant in Paris this year, in a final round qualifying match. All Polish hopes where on Kamil Majchrzak as a few months later Kamil qualified for his maiden ATP event in Antalya on a grass court.
Well, a lot can change in 12 months and Hurkacz has taken advantage of injuries to both Jerzy Janowicz and Kamil Majchrzak, fine-tuning his game as he has seen a massive rise at the ATP World rankings. Since that loss to Zopp in Mestre last year, he has reached two challenger finals, qualified for his maiden ATP tour event in Budapest and qualified for his maiden grand slam at this year’s Roland Garros.
The main foundation of the Pole’s rise has come in Asia as he has been improving his game as his game before his meteoric rise was very error prone and he made a huge amount of unforced errors which meant he would lose early in tournaments on a regular basis. However one of the 21 year old’s best traits that he has developed over the last 12 months is his strong mental fortitude and his ability to be able to reset when things aren’t going his way. This is a trait that he has had to develop on the challenger tour and is one of the main reasons why he qualified for Roland Garros.
Hurkacz’s Game and the Paris Experience
Hubert’s game is based on a big serve with very accurate groundstrokes, with his movement being one of the keys to a good clay court season. Of course there are parts of his game that are rusty as he doesn’t really use that much variety or slices in his game. However these improvements will increase over time with experiences such as the one in Paris right now.
So lets speak about the amazing week he is having in Paris and it all started with three impressive wins over Hugo Grenier, Yannick Hanfmann and Marco Trungelliti. The win over Grenier was a given considering the Frenchman’s ranking. However the wins over Hanfmann, who reached the final of Gstaad last year, and Trungelliti, the car journeyman, were both extremely impressive in their different ways. The victory over Hanfmann tested his ability to win the crucial points and be patient in his two tiebreak win. While the win over Trungelliti tested his mental fortitude to win a tough third set to qualify for his maiden grand slam.
His first main draw grand slam appearance was today against controversial American Tennys Sandgren, who reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. A tough match but very winnable and he showed that belief from the first ball as he whizzed to the first two sets 6-2. After the rain delay he looked a little sluggish but kept his composure to eventually win in four sets for his first grand slam win. There wasn’t a massive celebration though, a solitary fistpump from the 21 year old as he realised that it’s just one win and there will be another tough test in a couple of days.
As Hurkacz’s meteoric rise continues, where can he go from here? Should he keep on consistently producing these results then a top 50 place is within his grasp and with his work rate, he can even reach further. However for now it is one match at a time and a second round meeting with 3rd seed Marin Cilic awaits the Pole on Thursday.
