‘Usually he’s the one who makes this kind of shot!’ Hurkacz’s point of the tournament against Bublik
Hubert Hurkacz hit a magical tweener in his Marseille semi-final against Alexander Bublik
This Saturday at the Open 13, the Marseille public had the chance to witness the point of the tournament, and maybe even of the year. Hubert Hurkacz, ranked 11th in the world but with a solid, unshowy game reliant on strong serving rather than getting the crowd going, proved that he was also capable of putting on a show.
In the second set of his match against Alexander Bublik, which he won 6-4, 7-6 to go through to the final, Hurkacz made an exceptional point that even made his opponent smile.
At 6-4, 1-1, 30-15, Hurkacz approached the net with a chip and charge and was then lobbed by the Kazakh.
A little off-centre on the left side, Hurkacz pulled himself away to get on the ball and unleashed a perfectly executed tweener that turned into an exceptional long line passing shot. After this fantastic shot, the Pole turned around and raised both arms to the sky before smiling at a surprised Bublik – who was also laughing on the other side of the net.
“Usually, it’s Alexander who pulls off this kind of trick!” explained Hurkacz in a press conference after his win. “He makes us play this kind of tennis, he is very difficult to play against. On the tweener, I saw that I had room along the line and I went for it. I had attempted tweeners before in my career but hadn’t had much success!”
After this tweener that very quickly went viral on Twitter, the two men continued to put on a show at the Palais des Sports in Marseille, playing cat and mouse at the net, a spectacular point won this time by the Kazakh, who then with a smile on his face urged the crowd to acclaim him as well.
Bublik is known to try the underarm serve in some of his matches, but he had not yet tried it this week at the Open 13 – until a spectator at the Palais des Sports called for one, and the Kazakh responded immediately! And he even won the point before pointing his racquet towards the public.
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