Hubert Hurkacz is behaving in this Miami Open 2022 as what he truly is: the defending champion of a crown for which few had him in mind. The Pole showed strength and, despite his failures in certain moments of pressure (he was not effective in the break balls in favor), he strategically dominated Daniil Medvedev throughout, defeating him to advance to the semi-finals (7-6(7), 6-3). Immeasurable on serve, fine with his backhand and aggressive with his forehand, the Pole made the Muscovite run, who ended up completely exhausted, even dizzy under weather conditions that ended up slowing him down in the second set. So, Medvedev will have to wait to recover number onewhich will continue to belong to Novak Djokovic one more week.
The match began with only one player present on Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. That was Hurkacz, who signed three imperial games to start the duel by hitting the table. He had the invaluable collaboration of Daniil, who practically gave away the break in his first service game, which included three unforced errors. The Russian took a long time to make an appearance, and by then it was the Pole who was in charge: he imposed his tactic of finishing the points as soon as possible, always playing in the range between zero and four shots in each exchange, without letting the Muscovite began to carburize.
Eventually, Daniil began to activate the machinery. Driven by the serve, raising his percentages a little (he was not successful in the first one, yes: he only placed 52% of first services in the entire first set) and crouched waiting for a possible Polish slip. After saving two set points with his own serve, that slip came: Hurkacz remembered that his racket had the possibility of being set up, he entered Medvedev’s spider web and ended up giving up his advantage after several long exchanges, one of those where the Russian feels at home. Thus, after a bad game by each of the two tennis players on serve throughout the set, we would reach the tie-break.
One of the keys to Medvedev’s improvement to begin to neutralize Hubert’s bombs was the change in his positioning to the rest, placing himself further forward than usual on him and beginning to put more return on track. In the tense tie-break, Medvedev went back to his preferred tactic…and that had consequences. Despite not being able to close the set with two more sleeved balls (one of them masterfully saved in the net by Medvedev), it was Hubert who most often frightened his opponent’s serve, and finally and after one hour and four minutes duel, it would be the one from Wroclaw who would lay the first stone to give the big surprise on the scoreboard.
HURKACZ PRACTICES CHOKING
As the temperature rose in Miami, losing the first set became a tremendous burden on Medvedev’s shoulders. And, the worst for him, he completely liberated and gave the Pole confidence, who began to become the man capable of dictating from the bottom. The tables had turned: now Hubert had no problem exchanging blows from backhand to backhand, suffocating a Daniil without variants, who tried dropshots and going to the net with moderate success. Only the inaccuracy of Hurkacz in the break balls, reaching ten and barely converting two, kept Daniil alive in the match, who publicly complained about the Dunlop balls of the tournament and requested a medical timeout in the middle of the second set.
That the Pole was placed break up is no coincidence. All these ingredients add up to the fact that on a tactical and striking level, Hurkacz’s tennis can match (and beat) Daniil on a good day. Whenever they have faced each other, the Pole has put him in difficulties, even beating him at Wimbledon, and that is no coincidence: his service, especially on the deuce side, is really effective against the deep position of Medvedev’s rest (he attacks him with the cut open to your right); His forehand has enough power to attack the center balls that Daniil proposes, and the Pole has enough sensitivity in his wrist to change directions and go down the line, throwing Medvedev out of his comfort zone.
In a way, Hurkacz is a Unicorn, a unicorn who loves Medvedev’s ball rhythm: low, with little margin above the net, something that was demonstrated in their meeting at Wimbledon last. Medvedev showed clear symptoms of discomfort, dizzy and suffocated under the Miami sun, which was hitting harder and harder and leaving him out of action, until he finally gave in to an outstanding, aggressive Hurkacz, firm in his serve games and with the only mole of his conversion in the break balls, the only thing that kept him from a much more convincing victory (the match lasted up to two hours). Thus, the man from Wroclaw continues with his title defense in a place where few took him into account, but which seems to be a charm for his tennis. In the semifinals, Miomir Kecmanovic awaits… or Carlos Alcaraz. prepare the popcorn.
