Hurkacz Continues Late Turin Charge With Basel QF Comeback

Hubert Hurkacz continued his late charge in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin with a comeback victory against Tallon Griekspoor on Friday in the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals. The Pole earned a 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 win to stay firmly in the hunt for a return to the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time since 2021.

Champion in Shanghai earlier this month, Hurkacz has already moved up one place in the Live Race to 10th this week, and he is now within 245 points of Holger Rune for eighth place — though the Dane has his own quarter-final to play this evening in Basel.

One major milestone can already be ticked off for Hurkacz this year. After notching 41 tour-level singles wins in each of the past two seasons, his quarter-final result earned him a personal-best 42 victories in 2023. Five of those wins have come in quarter-finals, where the Pole owns a strong 5-1 mark, his only loss coming to Novak Djokovic in Dubai.

Hubi heads on! 👏@HubertHurkacz rallies 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 to boost his #NittoATPFinals qualification chances#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/bgBd6s86Fb

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 27, 2023

Hurkacz improved to 2-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head with Griekspoor, with all of their matches coming this season. Each of their two previous matches went the distance, with Hurkacz winning in five sets at Roland Garros and Griekspoor triumphing in three in Halle.

"He's such a great opponent and great guy as well of the court," Hurkacz said of the Dutchman. "We had some crazy battles this year. Last time he won, he beat me in Halle, so I was definitely excited for this match, to get a shot at a rematch. We just battled and my serve was definitely helping me today."

Hurkacz fought off the only two break points he faced in the match, with both coming at 1-2 in the final set. He closed out the two hour, 19-minute victory in style with an emphatic love hold.

In another stellar serving performance, Hurkacz fired 23 aces among his 46 total winners. With 52 aces on the week, he is now up to 950 this season, far and away the most on the ATP Tour. Taylor Fritz, second on the leaderboard, has less than 700 aces.

Next up for the fourth-seeded Pole will be a semi-final meeting with Frenchman Ugo Humbert, who overcame Swiss wild card Dominic Stricker 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Despite winning just two points off Stricker’s first delivery, Humbert was aggressive when he saw second serves, converting 73 per cent of his second-serve return points.

Now tied at his career-high No. 25 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, the 25-year-old Humbert is into his third tour-level semi-final of the year (Newport, Atlanta). Should he go one step further, the lefty will compete in his first tour-level final since triumphing in Halle in 2021.

When Humbert attempted to defend his Halle title the following year, it was Hurkacz who stopped him with a straight-sets second-round victory in their lone Lexus ATPHead2Head meeting.

Stricker, 21, was aiming for his maiden tour-level semi-final appearance. On Thursday, the lefty earned his second Top 10 win of the season when he survived second seed Casper Ruud in a third-set tie-break. Sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Jeddah, Stricker is in prime position to return to the Next Gen ATP Finals, which runs from 28 November - 2 December.