Carreno Busta Battles Back For First Masters 1000 Crown

Probably “one of the worst years” of his career? Probably not anymore.

Pablo Carreno Busta gave that assessment of his 2022 campaign prior to Sunday’s Montreal final. The unseeded Spaniard supercharged his season by winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory against Hubert Hurkacz, claiming his seventh tour-level title.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be a Masters 1000 winner,” he said post-match. “It’s the best title of my career for sure and I don’t know how I’m feeling in this moment.

“I know that during all the week we worked very hard, also the weeks before. It’s very important to be very positive all the time. It’s not my best season this year. I lost some matches that probably other seasons I didn’t lose, but I just tried to continue believing in my team, in myself and in my game.”

The 31-year-old worked his way into the final by dialling up his aggression and locking in on return to control the last two sets. After being gifted a momentum-shifting break early in the second set, Carreno Busta earned his breakthrough in the third game of set three as he closed in on the milestone win. He sealed victory in style, converting on his third break point of the match at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.

“I lost the first set, just one break, but you know when you play against these kinds of players who have a really good serve it’s really tough to be there,” he assessed. “But I just continued believing because I know that I was playing better and better. I tried to be aggressive with my serves and I could make two breaks, enough to be a winner.”

The title is a reward for a stellar week for the former World No. 10 which included straight-sets upsets against Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner before his final victory against the eighth seed. With six wins this week, Carreno Busta improved to 28-17 on the season as he claimed his first title of the season. He is the sixth Spaniard to win an ATP Tour title this year.

Photo Credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour

While neither Hurkacz or Carreno Busta was dominant on serve, both stayed out of trouble in the first two sets save for one loose service game apiece, both resulting in a break to love. Carreno Busta came undone in the sixth game of the opener, but after Hurkacz sealed the set with an ace, the Pole handed his opponent a lifeline with an error-strewn opening service game in set two.

There were no other break points in the first two sets and just one deuce game, on the Hurkacz serve midway through the second. Carreno Busta sent the match to a decider with an unreturned serve after just one hour, five minutes of play on Court Central. Forty minutes later, he finish the match as the Montreal champion.

Both competitors left the court prior to the deciding set, and Hurkacz immediately threatened at deuce on return before Carreno Busta’s punishing ground game earned him a break in the very next game as he broke for 2-1.

The point of the match came with the Spaniard serving at 3-2. Carreno Busta ran down a lob and used a desperate stab to float up a return with his back to the court, his momentum carrying him into the back wall. The sky-high lob troubled Hurkacz, who backed up to let it bounce, letting his opponent back into the point. The Spaniard then produced a grand finale with a flying backhand-volley winner, leading Hurkacz to send his racquet to the floor in frustration.

Carreno Busta was equally effective on both his first and second serves, winning more than 70 per cent of points off both deliveries. He faced just one break point in the match, when Hurkacz struck in the opening set.

As he turned the match around in set two, the unseeded champion excelled at converting points from attacking positions. According the the INSIGHTS: Conversion metric, he won all 16 points in which he gained an attacking advantage in the set, far exceeding the Tour average of 66 per cent.

Carreno Busta moved up nine places to No. 14 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings this week. He is also up to 11th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, soaring 18 places.

Hurkacz, who did not get off the court until near 1:30 a.m. local time after a doubles semi-final defeat in the early hours of Sunday morning, dropped his first final in his six tour-level title match. He moved up two spots to ninth in the Live Race To Turin this week.

Hurkacz won four three-setters to reach the Montreal final but could not repeat the feat on Sunday. Carreno Busta did not drop a set on the week until going the distance in the last two rounds.

The Montreal event announced a record attendance of 237,158 over the course of the tournament, 12,000 more than the previous record set in 2019.