The Pole will now have to wait until his final rival is revealed. It will be either the top-seeded Dane Holger Rune or the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (no. 6). The 26-year-old from Wrocław, Poland will play at an ATP tournament final for the ninth time. He has seven titles to his credit, the last of which was won just two weeks ago - at the Masters 1000 event in Shanghai.
Hurkacz's victory in the first set of the semi-final was determined by his only break in the fifth game. The second game had a very similar course, but in it the Pole's serve failed once, in the fourth game. In the deciding set, both players had one break each. First, Hubert Hurkacz increased the lead to 5:3, but the Frenchman made up for the loss by saving two match points.
In the tie-break, Hurkacz had a slight advantage from the beginning. After two good serves in a row, coach Craig Boynton's protégé was leading 6-3. Humbert saved the next two match balls - but on the third one, when the Pole served again, he was helpless. The match lasted two hours and 40 minutes. It was their second confrontation in history - and a second win by Hurkacz.
Regardless of the result of the tournament's final - Hubert Hurkacz will remain at 11th position in Monday's world ranking. More importantly, however - thanks to a good string of performances, the Pole still counts in the fight for participation in the season-ending masters tournament - ATP Finals in Turin (November 12-19), where the eight best players of the year will compete.
Saturday's victory allowed Hurkacz to move up to ninth position in this ranking. For now, he will definitely not overtake the eighth Rune in Basel, even if the Dane lost the semi-final and Hurkacz triumphed in the final. Yet, there are still some matches to play before the finals in Turin commence...
(mm)
Source: PAP, IAR