Hubert Hurkacz
Hubert Hurkacz is a Polish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the ATP, making him the highest-ranked Polish man in singles history. He has won eight ATP Tour singles titles, including two Masters 1000 titles at the 2021 Miami Open and the 2023 Shanghai Masters, becoming the first Pole to win an ATP Masters 1000 title. Hurkacz also has a career-high ranking of world No. 30 in doubles, which he attained in June 2022.
As a junior, Hurkacz was ranked as high as No. 29 in the world. He and his partner Alex Molčan were the runners-up at the 2015 Australian Open boys' doubles final. As a professional, he broke into the top 100 for the first time in 2018 after reaching the second rounds of the 2018 French Open and 2018 US Open. That year, he qualified for the Next Generation ATP Finals, where he won against Jaume Munar, but lost to Frances Tiafoe and Stefanos Tsitsipas. In 2019, he won his first ATP title at the 2019 Winston-Salem Open. The next year, he defeated three higher-ranked opponents at the 2020 ATP Cup and reached the semifinals of the 2020 ATP Auckland Open. In doing so, he entered the top 30 of the world rankings. In 2021, after winning his second and third singles titles, he went on to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and became the second Polish man to make a semifinals appearance at a Grand Slam after Jerzy Janowicz in 2013.
Hurkacz is an all-court player. At, he also possesses a serve reaching up to to set up effective one-two punches. In addition to being a defensive baseliner, he has often included netplay into his style and has been recognized for his penchant for playing serve-and-volley to close points.
Early life and background
Hurkacz was born on 11 February 1997 to Zofia Maliszewska-Hurkacz and Krzysztof Hurkacz in Wrocław, Poland, as the first of two children. His younger sister, Nika, is ten years younger and also plays tennis. Hurkacz grew up in a family with athletic prowess. His mother was a junior tennis champion in Poland, and one of his uncles, Tomasz Maliszewski, played tennis professionally. His grandfather was also a volleyball player at an international level. When asked whether his family's history shaped him to become the athlete he became, Hurkacz replied, "The genes, the motivation in the family, the love for the sport. I think they have helped me a lot."Hurkacz began playing tennis at the age of five after his mother introduced him to the sport as she practiced. His mother and father were his first teachers but he later enrolled in classes and started playing more consistently. He later became interested in professional tennis after watching Roger Federer on television. He has stated that if tennis was not his future, he would have pursued either basketball or motor racing, or he would continue his education. By 2014, Hurkacz had established himself as a member of the group of the most talented young Polish tennis players at the time, alongside Kamil Majchrzak and Jan Zieliński.
Career
2018: First major match wins and Next Generation ATP Finals
Hurkacz played in the main draw at the French Open and defeated Tennys Sandgren in the first round. This marked his first victory at a Grand Slam and at any ATP main-draw event. He lost in the second round to third seed Marin Čilić in four sets.In August, Hurkacz made his US Open debut. He began as the sixth seed in the qualifying draw and reached his third consecutive Grand Slam main draw as a qualifier, beating John-Patrick Smith, Egor Gerasimov and Pedro Martínez Portero to enter into the first round. There, he faced Stefano Travaglia who, like many others, fell victim to the extreme heat and retired. In the second round, Hurkacz lost to 2014 US Open champion Čilić in their second meeting.
In November, Hurkacz played at the NextGen Finals in Milan where he defeated Jaume Munar but lost to Frances Tiafoe and Stefanos Tsitsipas. At the end of the season he received a nomination for the ATP Newcomer of the Year Award.
2019: First ATP Tour title and top 40 debut
Hurkacz started his season at the Maharashtra Open in Pune, India. He continued at the Canberra Challenger, where he won the title after defeating Ilya Ivashka in the final. Hurkacz followed that up by making his debut at the Australian Open. He faced one of the best servers on the Tour, drawing Ivo Karlović in the opening round at Melbourne Park. After winning the first set, Hurkacz lost the match in four sets, all of which were tiebreakers. At the Dubai Championships, he defeated Corentin Moutet in the first round and then went on to win against No. 1 seeded player, Kei Nishikori, which marked his first ever win against a top 10 player. Hurkacz lost in the quarterfinals in three sets to the eventual runner-up of the tournament, Stefanos Tsitsipas.In March, Hurkacz played at the Indian Wells Open, where he made it to the quarterfinals of an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time in his career. On his way to the quarterfinals, he defeated Kei Nishikori in the third round and Denis Shapovalov in the fourth round. In the quarterfinals, he lost to Roger Federer. Following Indian Wells, Hurkacz achieved a new career high singles ranking of world No. 54. He continued at Miami, where he defeated Matteo Berrettini in first round. In the second round, Hurkacz took down the 2019 Indian Wells Open champion Dominic Thiem, in straight sets, before falling to Félix Auger-Aliassime in the third round.
At the Madrid Open, Hurkacz defeated Alex de Minaur and Lucas Pouille. He lost to Alexander Zverev in the third round after winning the first set. He continued at the French Open, where he lost to world No. 1, Novak Djokovic, in the first round.
Hurkacz later produced an upset in the first round of the Eastbourne International, with a victory over seventh seed Marco Cecchinato in just over an hour. He then defeated Steve Johnson in the second round. In the quarterfinals Hurkacz lost a tight match against the eventual champion Taylor Fritz.
For the first time in his career, Hurkacz reached the third round of a Grand Slam. At Wimbledon, he defeated Dušan Lajović and Leonardo Mayer to set up a third-round match with world No. 1 Djokovic. For two sets, Hurkacz gave Djokovic all he could handle before eventually succumbing to the top seed in four sets. At the Rogers Cup, Hurkacz defeated Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas before losing his third-round match to Gaël Monfils. Two weeks later, Hurkacz defeated Benoît Paire to win his first ATP title in Winston-Salem. In October, Hurkacz prevailed over Monfils in straight sets in the second round of the Shanghai Masters. In the third round he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
2020: First Masters doubles title and top 30 debut
At the 2020 ATP Cup, Hurkacz defeated a trio of higher-ranked opponents: Dominic Thiem, Diego Schwartzman and Borna Ćorić. Sixth seed, Hurkacz picked up where he left off at the ATP Cup, advancing to the semifinal of the ATP Auckland Open with victories over Lorenzo Sonego, Mikael Ymer, and Feliciano López. Seeded No. 31 at the Australian Open, Hurkacz reached the second round, defeating Dennis Novak before falling to John Millman in straight sets. With this successful run he reached the top 30 at world No. 28, on 3 February 2020.Playing at the Rotterdam Open Hurkacz lost a three set 1st round match to Tsitsipas. He continued in doubles with Auger-Aliassime. To reach the quarterfinal, they defeated third seeds Nikola Mektić and Wesley Koolhof. At Dubai, Hurkacz lost to Alexander Bublik in the first round.
After tennis stopped in March 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, Hurkacz resumed training with his coach Craig Boynton at the Saddlebrook Academies in Florida.
In May, Hurkacz played at the UTR Pro Match Series presented by Tennis Channel, a two-day round-robin tournament in West Palm Beach, Florida. Four top 60 ATP players including Hurkacz, Miomir Kecmanović, Reilly Opelka and Tommy Paul competed in the inaugural edition from 8–9 May 2020.
In August, Hurkacz traveled to New York City for the Cincinnati Open. In the first round he lost to John Isner. He continued at the US Open, where he defeated Peter Gojowczyk in the first round. In the second round he lost to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Seeded fifth at the Austrian Open Kitzbühel, Hurkacz defeated João Sousa in the first round. At the Italian Open, he defeated 2020 US Open quarterfinalist Andrey Rublev before falling to eighth seed Diego Schwartzman in the third round.
Hurkacz continued at the French Open where he was seeded at No. 29. In the first round he lost to Tennys Sandgren in five sets.
Hurkacz and Auger-Aliassime ended the six-match winning streak of Łukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo to reach their maiden doubles team final at the Paris Masters. They defeated US Open champions Mate Pavić and Bruno Soares in the final.
2021: First Masters singles title, major semifinal, ATP Finals & world No. 9
Hurkacz started his season at the Delray Beach Open where he was seeded fourth. He advanced to his second career ATP Tour final in straight sets. In the final, he defeated Sebastian Korda to win his second ATP title. Next, Hurkacz played at the 2021 Great Ocean Road Open in Melbourne, where he reached the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles. Coming into the Australian Open as the No. 26 seed, he lost to Mikael Ymer in the first round.At the Rotterdam Open, Hurkacz struck 17 aces to knock out Adrian Mannarino in straight sets. In the second round, he lost to second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets. He continued at the Dubai Championships, where he defeated Richard Gasquet before falling to third-seeded Denis Shapovalov in the third round.
In March, Hurkacz participated at the Miami Open. He defeated Denis Shapovalov, Milos Raonic, Tsitsipas, Rublev, and Jannik Sinner en route to his first Masters 1000 title and third ATP title overall. By lifting the title in Miami, he entered the top 20 for the first time and reached a career-high ranking of No. 16 on 5 April 2021.
At the Halle Open he reached his second doubles final partnering again with Auger-Aliassime, but lost to third-seeded German Kevin Krawietz and Romanian Horia Tecău.
As the 14th seed at Wimbledon, Hurkacz defeated Lorenzo Musetti, Marcos Giron and Alexander Bublik all in straight sets to reach the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. In the fourth round Hurkacz defeated second seed Daniil Medvedev, his third top-10 win of the year. He was the fifth Polish man to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Hurkacz then defeated eight-time Wimbledon champion and sixth seed Roger Federer in the quarterfinals in three sets, in what would transpire to be the Swiss player's final professional singles match. With this victory, he became the first man since Mario Ančić in 2002 to defeat Federer in straight sets at Wimbledon. Hurkacz became only the second Polish man in history to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam. Hurkacz then lost to 7th-seed Matteo Berrettini in the semifinals. With this successful run he entered the top 15 in the rankings at World No. 11 on 12 July 2021.
Following his Wimbledon run, Hurkacz attended the 2020 Summer Olympics and entered as the seventh seed. He defeated Luke Saville in the first round before falling in a stunning defeat to Liam Broady in a second round three-setter. For the year's US Open Series, Hurkacz embarked on his first tournament of the North American summer swing at the Canadian Open in Toronto, where the seventh seed defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili to reach the quarterfinals before he lost to top seed Daniil Medvedev in a tight three-set match involving two tiebreaks. The following week, ninth-seeded Hurkacz took on the Cincinnati Masters and defeated former world No. 1 Andy Murray in straight sets before losing to Pablo Carreño Busta in the third round in another hard-fought match with two tiebreak sets. The loss ended Hurkacz's 12-match win streak in the United States following his success at Delray Beach and Miami earlier in the year. In New York, Hurkacz embarked on the US Open as the 10th seed. He defeated Egor Gerasimov in the first round in straight sets before he was ousted by Andreas Seppi in a five-set second round match with a final set tiebreak.
After his loss in New York, Hurkacz headed to the 2021 Moselle Open to play in both the singles and doubles tournaments. In the singles, he was drawn as the top seed. After he defeated Lucas Pouille, Murray, and Peter Gojowczyk without dropping a set, he beat Carreño Busta in another straight-set win in the final and earned himself his fourth ATP title. In the doubles, after making the finals without dropping a set, Hurkacz and his partner, Jan Zieliński, defeated Hugo Nys and Arthur Rinderknech in straight sets to win the tournament. Hurkacz's win gave him his second career doubles title and made him the first player to sweep both titles in the tournament's history. The win earned him a top 50 debut in doubles and his then-career-high doubles ranking of world No. 47 on 27 September 2021.
Seeded eighth at the Indian Wells Masters, he reached the quarterfinals without dropping a set after beating Alexei Popyrin, Frances Tiafoe, and Aslan Karatsev. There, he lost to Grigor Dimitrov in a three-set match that ended in a deciding tiebreak. After the tournament, Hurkacz made his debut in the top 10 at No. 10 on 18 October and became just the second male Polish tennis player to be ranked inside the top 10 in singles after Wojciech Fibak achieved the feat in 1977.
At the Paris Masters, Hurkacz defeated qualifier Tommy Paul and lucky loser Dominik Koepfer to reach the quarterfinals. There, he beat Australian James Duckworth, to take the 8th and final spot at the ATP Finals. He is the second Polish player to earn a spot at the event in tournament history. Hurkacz lost to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals in three sets. Due to his result at the tournament, his ranking shot up to World No. 9 thus surpassing Wojciech Fibak for the highest ranked Polish man in ATP singles ranking history.