Hurkacz Takes Hard Path Into Basel Final

Hubert Hurkacz has continued his hot late-season form by defeating Ugo Humbert 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) Saturday to advance to the Swiss Indoors Basel final.

The win lifted the World No. 11 Pole ahead of Taylor Fritz into ninth place in the season-long Pepperstone ATP Race To Turin, leaving him just one place behind Holger Rune and the cut for the eight-man Nitto ATP Finals.

Rune will now take the court in Basel for his semi-final against Felix Auger-Aliassime as he looks to avenge his loss to the Canadian in last year’s final.

Hurkacz chose the hard path to victory. He failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in the third set and then failed to convert two match points on Humbert’s serve in the following game. He needed a further three match points in the tie-break to clinch victory.

In the quarter-finals Hurkacz dropped 23 aces on Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor but against the left-handed Humbert he managed just eight, including one on match point. He now has 958 aces for the year as he attempts to reach 1,000 in a season for the first time.

Hurkacz, who won the Rolex Shanghai Masters title earlier this month, seeks his third title of the year, second at the ATP 500 level (Halle, 2022) and eighth overall.