Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz hammered 19 aces in a 6-3, 7-6 (4) first-round win against Australia’s James Duckworth on Thursday at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
His reward is a second-round showdown with a fellow former champion of the ATP 1000 tournament, No. 10 seed Novak Djokovic. Hurkacz is 0-8 in his career against the Serbian legend, who is fresh off his 102nd career title at Beijing.
“It’s going to be a fun challenge,” Hurkacz said. “It’s on my list to play some good tennis against him and get a win. He’s got a few of them already. … I need to serve well, play well from the baseline and return well. He won the title (in Beijing) again. It’s always a pleasure to share the court with Novak, such a great champion.”
Hurkacz lifted the Shanghai trophy in 2023, while Djokovic won the event in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018.
Hurkacz, 29, has been thriving on the Asian swing, reaching the final at Chengdu before having to retire during his semifinal match against Australian Alex de Minaur in Beijing.
“I’m definitely feeling better,” he said. “It was a bit unfortunate in Beijing, I had a problem with my adductor, but now it’s getting better. I’m feeling better. I did a lot of recovery to get back the energy and restore everything for this tournament, because I really love playing here.”
Hurkacz never faced a break point against Duckworth and finished with a 31-18 advantage in winners.
Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas opened the action Thursday with a 6-3, 7-5 win against Belgian qualifier Kimmer Coppejans. He won 15 of the 19 points on his second serve and posted a 23-12 edge in winners.
“I feel like some of my best tennis has come playing first on,” said Tsitsipas, who moved to 6-0 in first-round matches in Shanghai. “I had a really good win a few weeks ago at the U.S. Open where I played Arthur Fils. That was either first or second on, so I can look back at that and say I played good tennis there.”
Up next for Tsitsipas is No. 18 seed Luciano Darderi of Italy.
Czech qualifier Dalibor Svrcina posted a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win against Britain’s Cameron Norrie. In another three-setter, Argentina’s Sebastian Baez rallied for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Marcos Giron.
Also advancing to the second round were Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi, Portugal’s Nuno Borges, China’s Yunchaokete Bu, Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, Russia’s Pavel Kotov, Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp, Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, Americans Jenson Brooksby and Zachary Svajda, and Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo, Thiago Agustin Tirante and Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
–Field Level Media
