Hubert Hurkacz has had a decent 2022 season, which saw the 25-year-old Pole maintain his status as one of the top 10-15 players in the world. He started the season by reaching the semifinal of the ATP Open. He then lost to Adrian Mannarino in the second round of the Australian Open and reached the semifinal of Dubai Open, an ATP 500 tournament, before losing to Andrey Rublev.
Hurkacz then entered into the Miami Open as the defending champion and beat top-seeded Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinal. However, he lost to the eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinal in a close match involving a couple of tie-breaks.
Improved performance on clay:
Hurkacz, who possesses a robust game with a powerful serve and good volleying skills, is usually not very comfortable on clay. However, he produced a much improved performance in the European Clay Swing in 2022.
He reached the quarterfinal of the Monte Carlo Masters before losing to Grigor Dimitrov. Then he notched up three victories at the Madrid Masters before losing to Novak Djokovic.
He then reached the fourth round of the French Open and lost to eventual runner-up Casper Ruud. He thus concluded the clay season with a 9-3 win-loss record.
Winning a title on grass:
Hurkacz made his mark on his favourite surface by winning his first title of the season in Halle. It was also his first ATP 500 title. However, quite surprisingly, he lost in the first round of Wimbledon to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in a match that lasted for more than three hours.
Hurkacz then reached the final of the Canadian Open, where he lost to Pablo Carreno Busta. He then reached the semifinal of the Moselle Open. Then he made it to the quarterfinal of the Astana Open before losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
He also reached the quarterfinal of the European Open before losing to Dominic Thiem. Then he reached the second round of the Paris Masters, where he ran into yet another eventual champion in Holger Rune.
Style of Play:
As mentioned earlier, Hurkacz possesses a good serve and volley. However, his baseline game is still not at par with those of the very best in the game. As a result, Hurkacz often tried to force the issue by rushing the net in an attempt to shorten the rallies. That tactic often backfires on the slower surfaces those are prevalent these days, but he remains a threat on surfaces like grass and quick hard courts.
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