Hurkacz Too Strong For Sinner In Miami Final, Earns Biggest Title of Career

Hubert Hurkacz held on to win the biggest title of his career Sunday beating good friend Jannik Sinner 7-6(4), 6-4 to take home the Miami Masters trophy.

“I played one of the best tennis I ever played,” Hurkacz said. “I was solid throughout the whole tournament, and I was able to get through each round, was even more pumped for the next round. So I think that’s something special for me.

“My tennis is getting better. We work hard with my coach, CB (Craig Boynton), and super happy that it happened here. We still need to improve couple of things and just try to get better each day.”

The 24-year-old Hurkacz who trains in Florida and loves the state after collect both Delray Beach and Miami. And the Pole won his last five matches beating Denis Shapovalov, Milos Raonic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev and then Sinner in the final.

“Obviously like super pumped now, like big, huge tournament for me, like that’s my biggest title ever,” Hurkacz added. “I just need to take it step by step and just to try to be the same, just to improve every single day and try to get better, because all the guys are working and I need to get better too to be able to beat them.”

Sinner, though, had chances early on. After falling behind 3-0, the 19-year-old came back and served for the opening set. But after getting broken at love, momentum shifted to the Pole who took the breaker and then went up 4-0.

Sinner Hurkacz would give a break back but was able to get through a rough final game winning the last two points from 30-all to take the title.

“I was super happy that he missed this shot at the end,” Hurkacz said.

“I had chances to go up 5-Love in the second set and he came back. He started to play better. I got a little bit nervous. I mean, he took the chance and it was very close there,” he said. “He came back and I was just trying to fight to get my level higher to be able to win some extra points there.”

Sinner was the youngest player since Novak Djokovic to make the Miami final.

“I made some unforced errors. I made a few or a couple of mistakes in the tiebreak. Then I was not serving well, especially in the beginning of the second set, and not returning deep enough,” Sinner said.

“I think it’s for me today is a tough day, to be honest, because losing the final here for me is not easy. But, you know, I was deciding the whole week what to do with the ball. For that time I’m happy. Yeah, today went the wrong way. Today you win or you learn.

“When you’re 19 and playing finals here, obviously it’s tough, and I wanted to win. I was a bit nervous from the beginning of the match or already yesterday, but, you know, it’s normal, you know, because you really want to win. But today was not my day, and congrats to Hubi. I mean, that’s it.”

Hurkacz will now break into the Top 20 for a first time. And what a time in Poland with Iga Swiatek the reigning French Open champion.