Estoril, Portugal–
Hubert Hurkacz is having an amazing week at Estoril and he will be playing his first ever claycourt final at ATP level on Sunday as a reward. Even on the slow claycourts of Estoril, Hurkacz’s serve has been extremely effective, with the Pole only getting broken three times all week. While he hasn’t been hitting as many aces as usual, he’s still been dominant in his own service games and used that as a platform to make it to the final, despite facing some very good resistence from Cristian Garin today.
In the final, he will face Pedro Martinez, who is having an amazing week himself, reaching a third career final (one title) on the back of his first ever top 10 win, against defending champion Casper Ruud. It will be a fascinating contrast of styles, with Martinez’s classic claycourt game going up against Hurkacz’s massive serve and net game. On a hard court or grass court, you would expect Hurkacz to win easily, but on clay it’s a very different story and it should be a very tight match.
Hurkacz wasn’t having a particularly successful year before this week, despite a nice run to the Australian Open semifinals, and a title here looks like the perfect way to gain some momentum ahead of the bigger events coming. That said, even if he ends up losing in the final, Hurkacz seemed satisfied with how he has played this week and seems to have enjoyed the tournament.
In fact, just like Casper Ruud had done already, he pointed out that he hopes the ATP find a calendar spot for Estoril in 2025: “The fans are amazing, the tournament director does a great job and it’s a lovely event.”, he said. Estoril is an event that players generally enjoy but it’s currently not on the 2025 calendar. Win or lose tomorrow’s final, if the tournament remains in the calendar next year, it’s safe to assume that Hurkacz will be back.
Main photo credit: Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY Sports
