Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz showed his Wimbledon credentials when he hammered tennis world number one Daniil Medvedev 6-1, 6-4 to win the ATP 500 grasscourt tournament in the Gerry Weber Stadion of Halle, Germany.
Tennis world number 12 Hurkacz defeated Medvedev and Roger Federer en route to the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and showed he will once again be a force to reckon with when the Championships kick off on June 27.
Halle is the 25-year-old Pole’s fifth ATP singles title, and he kept his record in finals so far unblemished with his victory in just over an hour when he converted his second matchpoint with a backhand volley.
“I’m super excited, I’ve been waiting a little bit for my first (title) this year,” Hurkacz said during his victory speech. “I’m happy to win my first ATP 500 title and of course, on the grass it is very special.
“Daniil is an unbelievable player. He’s the best player in the world so it’s very tricky to play him. All the right shots went my way at the beginning, so I definitely gained a lot of momentum from that.”
In contrast, it was a fifth straight defeat in a championship match for Medvedev, who has not won a title since denying Novak Djokovic the calendar Grand Slam to win the 2021 U.S. Open for his maiden major triumph.
But the Russian struggled to get his first serves in as Hurkacz jumped into a 5-0 lead in no time with two breaks of his opponent’s delivery.
Medvedev finally held his serve at 1-5 before Hurkacz wrapped up the opening set in 27 minutes.
There was, however, no end to Medvedev’s frustrations in the second set as the Pole once again broke serve early, continuing to dominate the rallies both from the back of the court and when he advanced to the net.
Medvedev saved two breakpoints to hold serve in the seventh game to stay close to Hurkacz, but he could not get the break back against his opponent, who did not allow the Russian a single opportunity on his own delivery during the entire match.
