It did not take long for a sense of chaos to envelop the Shanghai Masters.
The tournament proper was not even underway before Marc Polmans, an Australian ranked 140th, was disqualified for accidentally whacking a chair umpire in the face with a ball in a qualifying match. Then Frances Tiafoe, the American 10th seed, arrived late after missing his flight from Washington.
Meanwhile, the conditions at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena were the focus of hot debate. Daniil Medvedev, seeded second, was unhappy about the speed of the courts (“I don’t know what’s slower, here or Indian Wells,” he said, teasing the potential for another comedic outburst like the one he delivered in the California desert earlier this year). Taylor Fritz, on the other hand, felt the problem lay with the balls (“soft, slow, kind of dead”).
At a tournament where elite status counted for little, neither man had to worry about the situation for long. Nine of the top 10 seeds fell before the quarter-finals, Medvedev and Fritz among them. Not even Carlos Alcaraz, the Wimbledon champion, or Jannik Sinner, the man of the moment following his China Open victory, were immune. With the grand slam season done, and the ATP Finals yet to come, there was a palpable sense of the world’s top players limping towards the finish line at the dog end of an arduous campaign.
Amid the mayhem, Hubert Hurkacz, unfussy and unassuming, brought his customary blend of quiet diligence and thunderous serving to his work. A run to the last four in Cincinnati aside, it has not been the most memorable year for the 26-year-old former Wimbledon semi-finalist, whose sole title came six months ago at an ATP 250 event in Marseille. But after navigating his way to Sunday’s final with a poise and composure that eluded so many of his more celebrated peers, the powerful Pole changed all that, claiming the second Masters 1000 title of his career with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (10-8) win over Andrey Rublev, the lone standard bearer for the top 10.
“Andrey was playing some really good tennis, and I knew I had to produce the shots,” said Hurkacz after recovering from match point down to claim a dramatic victory.
“I was just trying to stay out there and compete as hard as I could, to keep positive self-talk and keep the belief until the end. At the end of the day, it’s a final, and you want to just give it all you’ve got out there.”
With both men outstanding on serve, the first two sets went by in barely an hour. Hurkacz secured the first courtesy of a break in the sixth game, while Rublev slammed a pair of searing forehand winners to claim a decisive breakthrough at the start of the second.
The decider came down to a tale of two aces.
The first came after Rublev was distracted by the movement of a courtside photographer, bringing up a match point for Hurkacz. The Russian fifth seed was warned by Renaud Lichtenstein, the French chair umpire, after furiously berating the offender, but managed to translate his rage into an untouchable 122mph serve before going on to hold for 5-5 with a finely crafted volley.
At that point, it felt as though the odds were beginning to favour Rublev. The 25-year-old Muscovite has bounced back from match point down against Holger Rune, Tallon Griekspoor, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Bernabe Zapata Miralles this season, and anguish was etched in Hurkacz’s features as he timidly netted a sliced backhand to fall 5-2 down in the climactic tiebreak.
But then came the second of those two aces, this time from Hurkacz, who battered down a 135mph effort to deny Rublev a second Masters 1000 success to sit alongside the title he won in Monte Carlo earlier this year. Another followed, his 21st of the day, and although Rublev gamely held off two more championship points, a netted forehand eventually left the Russian ploughing his racket into his thigh in frustration as Hurkacz raised his arms in triumph.
“I don’t know what to say, it’s been such a battle, especially emotionally,” said Hurkacz after claiming the seventh title of his career. “I had a match point before, Andrey hit an amazing serve. Andrey had a match point and then I had some match points, we were going back and forth and it was just such a tricky match.
“It was just one of those matches, you’ve just got to stay in it and keep believing till the end. I’m just super happy with how I managed at the end.”
The win leaves Hurkacz, who claimed his first Masters 1000 title in Miami two years ago, just 335 points behind eighth-placed Rune in the race to the ATP Finals in Turin. It also elevates the affable Pole to 11th in the rankings, his highest position since March and only two spots shy of his career best.
“He is a super great player and it’s so tough to beat him,” said Rublev, for whom it was hard not to feel sympathy. “With him, you can easily lose only [because of] the way he serves. As we could see today, he was serving unreal.”