Hubert Hurkacz

Hubert Hurkacz (born 11 February 1997) is a Polish professional tennis player.

He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles by the ATP, achieved on 29 January 2024, making him the highest-ranked Polish man in singles history.

He has won seven ATP Tour singles titles, including two Masters 1000 titles at the 2021 Miami Open and the 2023 Shanghai Masters, becoming the first Pole to win an ATP Masters 1000 title.

Hurkacz also has a career-high ranking of world No. 30 in doubles, which he attained in June 2022.

As a junior, Hurkacz was ranked as high as No. 29 in the world.

Hurkacz was born on 11 February 1997 to Zofia Maliszewska-Hurkacz and Krzysztof Hurkacz in Wrocław, Poland as the first of two children.

His younger sister, Nika, is ten years younger and also plays tennis.

Hurkacz grew up in a family with athletic prowess.

His mother was a junior tennis champion in Poland and one of his uncles, Tomasz Maliszewski, played tennis professionally.

His grandfather was also a volleyball player at an international level.

When asked whether his family's history shaped him to become the athlete he became, Hurkacz replied, "The [sporting] genes, the motivation in the family, the love for the sport. I think they have helped me a lot."

Hurkacz began playing tennis at the age of five after his mother introduced him to the sport as she practiced.

His mother and father were his first teachers but he later enrolled in classes and started playing more consistently.

He later became interested in professional tennis after watching Roger Federer on television.

He has stated that if tennis was not his future, he would have pursued either basketball or motor racing, or he would continue his education.

By 2014, Hurkacz had established himself as a member of the group of the most talented young Polish tennis players at the time, alongside Kamil Majchrzak and Jan Zieliński.

Hurkacz played in the main draw at the French Open and defeated Tennys Sandgren in the first round.

This marked his first victory at a Grand Slam and at any ATP main-draw event.

He lost in the second round to third seed Marin Čilić in four sets.

In August, Hurkacz made his US Open debut.

He began as the sixth seed in the qualifying draw and reached his third consecutive Grand Slam main draw as a qualifier, beating John-Patrick Smith, Egor Gerasimov and Pedro Martínez Portero (all in straight sets) to enter into the first round.

There, he faced Stefano Travaglia who, like many others, fell victim to the extreme heat and retired.

In the second round, Hurkacz lost to 2014 US Open champion Čilić in their second meeting.

In November, Hurkacz played at the NextGen Finals in Milan where he defeated Jaume Munar but lost to Frances Tiafoe and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

At the end of the season he received a nomination for the ATP Newcomer of the Year Award.

Hurkacz started his season at the Maharashtra Open in Pune, India.

He continued at the Canberra Challenger, where he won the title after defeating Ilya Ivashka in the final.

Hurkacz followed that up by making his debut at the Australian Open.

He faced one of the best servers on the Tour, drawing Ivo Karlović in the opening round at Melbourne Park.

After winning the first set, Hurkacz lost the match in four sets, all of which were tiebreakers.

He and his partner Alex Molčan were the runners-up at the 2015 Australian Open boys' doubles final.

As a professional, he broke into the top 100 for the first time in 2018 after reaching the second rounds of the 2018 French Open and 2018 US Open.

That year, he qualified for the Next Generation ATP Finals, where he won against Jaume Munar, but lost to Frances Tiafoe and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

In 2019, he won his first ATP title at the 2019 Winston-Salem Open.

The next year, he defeated three higher-ranked opponents at the 2020 ATP Cup and reached the semifinals of the 2020 ATP Auckland Open.

In doing so, he entered the top 30 of the world rankings.

In 2021, after winning his second and third singles titles, he went on to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and became the second Polish man to make a semifinals appearance at a Grand Slam after Jerzy Janowicz in 2013.

Hurkacz is an all-court player.

At 1.96m, he also possesses a serve reaching up to 151 mph to set up effective one-two punches.

In addition to being a defensive baseliner, he has often included netplay into his style and has been recognized for his penchant for playing serve-and-volley to close points.