For the second time in this year's tournament at Roland Garros, the weather caused Hurkacz's match to stretch over two days.
The duel between the 8th-ranked Pole and Canada's Denis Shapovalov (ATP 118th) in the round of 16 started on Friday - but was interrupted thrice because of rain. Finally, at 2-0 in sets and 2-1 in the third set for Hurkacz, the officials decided to postpone the match until Saturday.
The players were to return to the court at 13:00 - but it didn't happen, as it rained again in Paris. In the end, it was decided that the match will be moved to another, covered court - and at 18:30 on Saturday it was finally resumed.
Both players didn't take the pause-and-resume situation well.
Shapovalov soon made an unforced error and two double service faults - and was broken. At this point Hurkacz was leading 3-1 and only needed to win his service games to end the match.
However, he didn't even score a point in the first of these, also making three unforced errors. And as the Pole's mistakes piled on - Shapovalov took the third set.
In the fourth set, though - the tables have turned again, as Hurkacz reclaimed his cool - while this time it was the Canadian who was hit by a streak of unforced errors. The Pole capitalised on that - breaking the opponent twice and holding the lead till the end.
Thanks to this hard-gained win, Hurkacz will face Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday in the 1/8th. Their match will start no earlier than 17:00 - and they will be the last to play that day on the covered Suzanne Lenglen court, where Hurkacz finished off his previous game.
Meanwhile, at 11:00 local time on Sunday, Polish world number one Iga Świątek will play for the quarterfinals, facing off against non-national contestant Anastazja Potapova on the covered central court.
A number of other 'Polish' French Open matches will take place on Sunday as well.
In the second round of men's doubles, Poland's Jan Zieliński and Monegasque Hugo Nys will play against Americans Christopher Eubanks and Evan King.
In the women's doubles, Poland's Magda Linette and the American Bernarda Pera will face the Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, while Poland's Katarzyna Kawa and the Japanese Nao Hibino will face non-national contestants Mirra Andreeva and Vera Zvonariova.
The 2024 French Open Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros will continue until June 9.
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Source: IAR, Sport.pl