Hurkacz downs Harrison to set up Delray Beach Open final vs Korda
Hubert Hurkacz hits a return shot to Christian Harrison (unseen) during their semi-final match of the Delray Beach Open on Tuesday. Agence France-Presse
Poland’s Hurkacz defeated Harrison 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, while Korda, a former junior world number one, reached his first ATP Tour final with a 6-3, 7-5 semi-final victory over Norrie.
“Very happy to win this match today,” the 23-year-old Hurkacz, ranked 35th in the world, said. “I mean, Christian played pretty amazing throughout the whole tournament.
“He qualified here and had his best results on the ATP Tour. Especially after all he came through, all the surgeries, it’s really great for him. He played a really amazing match.”
Harrison, ranked 789th in the world, had toppled Chilean top seed Cristian Garin to reach the quarter-finals.
He recovered an early break of serve in the second set -- the first break of the match -- but Hurkacz broke him again to love to regain the advantage and went on to close out the match.
Hurkacz will be seeking a second ATP title to go with his 2019 Winston-Salem crown.
Korda, the 20-year-old son of former Australian Open champion Petr Korda, will be seeking a first tour title.
His run to the final included a quarter-final win over second-seeded American John Isner.
Against Norrie, Korda served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but let two match points go begging -- one with a double-fault.
“Other than that, I played a really good match,” Korda said.
Two games later there was no mistake as he closed out the victory in one hour and 22 minutes.
“I’m fired up right now, I couldn’t be happier,” said Korda, ranked 119th in the world -- 45 spots below Norrie. The 20-year-old was ranked 213th before Roland Garros but has climbed to 119th and is on track to break the top 100 soon.
De Minaur triumphs: Australian Alex de Minaur warmed up for his home Grand Slam with an ATP title on Wednesday, winning the Antalya Open when fellow finalist Alexander Bublik retired with an ankle injury after just seven minutes’ play.
De Minaur, his country’s highest-ranked player at 23rd, was 2-0 up in the first set when the Kazakh pulled out.
De Minaur said victory at the Turkish ATP 250 tournament - his fourth main-tour title - was a massive boost going into next month’s Australian Open.
“At the start of the year that’s what you need,” he told reporters. “I knew I had put in a great pre-season, I was ready to compete.
Agencies
