On Sunday, Hubert Hurkacz was happy about winning the ATP Masters tournament in Shanghai, and today he has to deal with a premature defeat in the competition in Tokyo. The Pole had to acknowledge the superiority of his rival after an extremely fierce three-set fight. Interestingly, he was beaten by the tennis player who lost to him in Shanghai.
Although the end of the tennis season is fast approaching, a series of Asian tournaments is still underway. Moreover, there are still indoor events in Europe and the season finals, i.e. ATP Finlas, to be played. Hubert Hurkacz knows this best and, thanks to winning the Masters 1000 in Shanghai, he still has a chance to advance to the ATP Finals. This is probably why the Pole took part in the event in Tokyo on Wednesday, instead of taking a few days break after the triumph in Shanghai.
Unfortunately, Hubert Hurkacz will not be able to boast of a good result in Tokyo because he was eliminated in the first round. The Pole lost only after a three-set battle, and in the third set he lost to his rival only in the tie-break, but it was obvious that he had not had time to recover after the exhausting start in Shanghai and had big problems with his serve. His opponent was Zhizhen Zhang. Hubert Hurkacz’s loss was a big surprise because a few days ago Hurkacz defeated Zhang in the fourth round in Shanghai. In Tokyo, Zhang defeated Hurkacz after two hours and 14 minutes with the score 6:3, 4:6, 6:7(4).
After the defeat in Tokyo, Hurkacz is in 11th position in the ATP Race to advance to the ATP Finals. However, the Pole still has a chance to get to the tournament. Hurkacz will try to get more points in tournaments in Basel and Paris.
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