Hubert Hurkacz has registered his first Tour-level victory in seven months by producing a surprise straight-sets win over world No.3 Alexander Zverev at the United Cup.
The Pole is playing in his first event since June after ending his 2025 season early to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Hurkacz has been troubled by issues with his knee since Wimbledon 2024, when he hurt his meniscus while diving for the ball during a match.
In his first match of 2026 on Monday, the 28-year-old returned to winning ways with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Zverev. Hurkacz impressively hit 21 aces to claim his 20th win over a top 10 player in his career.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been competing. Seven months I’ve been going through difficult times with the team and it was very challenging,” atptour.com quoted Hurkacz as saying.
“They were all supporting me, they were all behind me. We went through definitely a long period of time not competing and not knowing when we [would] be able to be back on court again. I was just trying to cherish and enjoy every moment here on the court today.”
Hurkacz, who is currently ranked 83rd in the world, won 85% of his first service points and didn’t drop his serve when playing the German.
“I was serving quite well. I was finding nice spots, so that’s definitely a nice feeling to really have good rhythm on the serve,” he said.
After the United Cup, Hurkacz’s focus will be the Australian Open, where he has mixed fortunes. In 2024, he reached the quarter-finals, but he has failed to win back-to-back matches in his six other appearances.
So far in his career, Hurkacz has won eight ATP titles and been ranked as high as sixth in the world. His best grand Slam performance was reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2021. He is the only Polish player to have ever won a masters 1000 title.
