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The 16th seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland beat fifth seed Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8) to win the Shanghai Masters title on Sunday, October 15. It was the second Masters 1000 title for the 26-year-old Pole and his first big title of the year.
The match lasted for around three hours and it was a pity that one of the players had to lose in the end. However, Rublev should have been proud of his efforts on the day.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1. Both players played the inside-out forehand extensively
Both players played the inside-out forehand extensively throughout the match, thus targeting each other's backhand. Rublev had followed the same tactic against Dimitrov in the semifinal, but got a taste of his own medicine in the final.
However, to his credit, the Russian kept hitting his forehand, which is among the biggest in the world, with prodigious power. Rublev also played the crosscourt forehand from the deuce court frequently.
He also hit the down-the-line backhand to keep making the Pole stretch towards his right. However, Hurkacz's longer reach allowed him to get to the ball in time on most of the occasions. The big Pole often responded with forehand slices to take the pace off the ball.
Hurkacz broke Rublev once to win the first set, but Rublev then got the decisive break to win the second. Those were the only two breaks of serve in the match.
#2. Hurkacz's superior first serve gave him the edge
As mentioned earlier, there was not much to choose between the two players in a fiercely contested match. In such a close encounter, Hurkacz's ability to win more cheap points with his big first serve helped his cause. Rublev served well himself in the match and fired 13 aces, which was still eight less than Hurkacz's tally.
The Pole won 80% of the points on his first serve against Rublev's 75%, which was a significant difference in the context of the match. The Russian fared better with his second serve, however, but that was not enough to see him through.
The third set went into a tie-break, with Hurkacz winning the points on his serve with more ease than the Russian did. Rublev saved a couple of match points, but could not quite stop the Pole from winning the title.
