Fourth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz ended qualifier Christian Harrison’s fairytale run with a straight sets victory on Tuesday to take the first spot in the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com final.
The 23-year-old from Poland has not lost a set all week, showing the quality that took him to the Winston-Salem Open title back in 2019. Hurkacz edged past 7-6(4), 6-4 in an hour 34 minutes against Harrison, the American ranked No. 789 in the FedEx ATP Rankings after undergoing eight surgeries throughout a snake-bitten career.
“Very happy to win this match today,” Hurkacz said in his on-court interview. “I mean, Christian played pretty amazing throughout the whole tournament. He qualified here and had his best results on the ATP Tour. Especially after all he came through, all the surgeries, it’s really great for him. He played a really amazing match.”
Harrison was playing his eighth match in Delray Beach after fighting past the qualifying rounds and reaching the semi-finals in both singles and doubles. Coming into the match against Hurkacz, the American had spent nearly 11 hours on court this week, compared to two and a half for his opponent. But he showed no signs of fatigue as he kept pace with the Polish player in a serve-dominated opening set.
There was just one break point on offer across the first 12 games: on Harrison’s serve in the second game of the contest. Hurkacz and Harrison marched steadily into tie-break, where the Polish player finally broke through after winning a few inch-perfect baseline battles.
“I didn’t have many opportunities in the first set,” Hurkacz said. “Then it came to a tiebreaker, and he started really well but then I won these really long rallies. That helped me and helped me get some momentum, so that was really crucial for the second set.”
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Even as the damp conditions paused play momentarily, Hurkacz returned just as focused as he took advantage of a dip in Harrison’s serve to claim the first break of the match for a 4-3 lead. Harrison raised his level to respond with a break straight back, but the 26-year-old couldn’t maintain it as Hurkacz broke to love before taking the match 7-6(4), 6-4 to seal his spot in the final.
He awaits the winner of Cameron Norrie and Sebastian Korda, who are both looking to claim their first ATP Tour title in Delray Beach.
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