Top seed Carlos Alcaraz overcame a slow start and a dramatic ending Thursday to down 15th seed Hubert Hurkacz and reach the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.
The Spaniard rallied past Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(3) to extend his winning streak to 14 matches. Alcaraz held a 5-2 lead in the deciding set and served for the match twice before closing the third-round contest on his fifth match point.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what happened,” Alcaraz said of his third-set slide. “I started feeling bad at that moment. I couldn’t feel the right way in my shots. I didn’t know what happened. But what I was thinking was to stay calm, try to find a way to overcome the problems and find the good feeling again. I think at 5-6 serving, I started to feel better.
“The big players have that feeling to find a way to stay alive and try to end the match playing well.”
Alcaraz struggled to find his best level early, committing unforced forehand errors as the Pole won the first three games of the match for the loss of just three points. A finalist last year in Montreal, Hurkacz played tight to the baseline and took the ball early to push the World No. 1 throughout the two-hour, 38-minute battle.
Despite being broken in the opening game of the second set, Alcaraz stayed focussed and found greater consistency in extended rallies as Hurkacz’s first-serve percentage dropped from 69 per cent to 48.
Alcaraz won 19 consecutive points behind his serve spanning from late in the second set to the third, but struggled to close the match. The two-time major champion had two match points on serve at 5-2 before Hurkacz won four straight games and forced the 12-time tour-level titlist to a tie-break.
“In the tough moments you have to believe in yourself, try to go for it,” said Alcaraz, who committed 28 unforced errors to 48 winners. “It doesn’t matter if you win or not. You have to believe you are going to play your best in that moment, try to play aggressive. I think in the two tie-breaks I did pretty well. That’s why I got the win.”
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Aiming for his seventh title of the season, Alcaraz improved to 2-0 in his Lexus ATPHead2Head series with Hurkacz and now boasts a 49-4 season record. He will next play 12th seed Tommy Paul, who upset the Spaniard last year in Montreal. Alcaraz is making his Toronto debut this week and is hoping for his third ATP Masters 1000 title of the year after winning in Indian Wells and Madrid.
Six-time tour-level titlist Hurkacz, who has tallied a 27-17 record this year, was aiming for his second win over a World No. 1.
The American Paul cruised past countryman Marcos Giron 6-3, 6-2 to reach his first Masters 1000 quarter-final of the year and set a third meeting against Alcaraz (1-1). Paul struck 22 winners to Giron’s 13 and fended off seven of eight break points faced.
Paul, who is World No. 14 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, won 17 of 22 points behind Giron’s second serve to level his Lexus ATPHead2Head series with the California native at 1-1. A quarter-finalist last year in Canada, Paul will aim for his maiden win against a World No. 1 on Friday night.