Hubert Hurkacz was eliminated in the second round of the US Open Grand Slam tournament in New York. The Polish tennis player, seeded seventh, lost to Australian Jordan Thompson 6:7 (2-7), 1:6, 5:7.
Hurkacz has been in the top 20 tennis players in the world for several seasons, but he has yet to record a valuable result in the US Open. He has never made it past the second round, and this year’s start in New York was already his seventh.
It was hard to have high expectations for him this time, because he was just getting back into shape after a knee injury he sustained in the second round of Wimbledon. In July, he underwent surgery to remove part of the meniscus.
You might be interested
He started the match with the 32nd in the world ranking Thompson well. He quickly broke the Australian and after a dozen or so minutes he was leading 4:1. However, his opponent made up for the loss in the ninth game.
The tie-break was even only at the beginning. From the 2-2 score Hurkacz’s game completely collapsed. Thompson won 13 points in a row. As a result, he not only won the tie-break 7-2, but also took a quick lead of 2-0 in the second set.
The 30-year-old Australian served solidly and played very well at the net. In the second set, he gave Hurkacz only a game.
After two sets, Hurkacz had 25 unforced errors, while Thompson had only 11. In the third set, the 27-year-old from Wrocław finally improved his game. In it, the number of unforced errors dropped to nine.
Hurkacz wasted two break points in the eighth game and another in the tenth, which was also a set point. It seemed that coach Craig Boynton’s protégé would at least extend the match for one more game.
However, he started the eleventh game, in which he was serving, badly. Three lost balls in a row meant that Thompson now had three break points. The Australian used the third one, and a few minutes later, serving, he closed the match.
It was their first match, lasting two hours and 23 minutes. Thompson advanced to the third round of the US Open for the second time in his career. Four years ago, he stopped in the round of 16, which is his best result in a Grand Slam.
Of the Poles, only Iga Świątek remains in the singles. The ranking leader will play in the 2nd round on Thursday against Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara.
Men’s singles 2nd round match result:
Jordan Thompson (Australia) – Hubert Hurkacz (Poland, 7) 7:6 (7-2), 6:1, 7:5.
