Top seed Carlos Alcaraz advances to his first indoor tour-level title match in his ABN AMRO Open debut by coming through world No. 21 Hubert Hurkacz in three sets on Saturday night.
A packed Rotterdam Ahoy Arena hosted a high-level semifinal match on Saturday night. In an edgy contest, world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz defeated eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 in two hours and 20 minutes.
Assessing the encounter and his performance, he outlined: “I was a bit in trouble, I guess. I just felt every ball until the end. That’s all I was thinking about, and I knew I was going to have my chances.
“His level at that time was unbelievable, really high. I’m really happy to have been able to fight every ball and to save the break points that I had to [save] not to be 1-5 down. I’m just happy to be able to do it, and in the end, it paid off.”
On Sunday’s final, the four-time major champion will face off against last year’s runner-up, Alex de Minaur, who ended Italian qualifier Mattia Belluci’s dream week with a straightforward victory earlier on Saturday.
Having won his three previous meetings with Hurkacz, the Murcia-born prepared for another tight battle against the in-form Polish player.
Emphatic behind his serve, the former world No. 6 broke Alcaraz in the second game of the first set, quickly extending his lead to 3-0.
However, the 16-time ATP titlist held his ground and recovered from a break down, rallying from a 1-4, 0-40 deficit to steal the sixth game by breaking back and holding, setting all even at 4-4.
Building from there, he generated a double break point, racing to halt Hurkacz’s late challenge, saving a break point in the 10th game to close out 6-4 in 49 minutes.
Making his sixth appearance at the ATP 500, the former Miami Open winner came through a second set with no margin for errors to force a tiebreak he took 7-6(5), setting even the match at one set apiece.
Hurkacz, 27, was clinical on the return and sharp at the net in the second set which proved to be crucial to keep his chances alive at the moment.
Then, Alcaraz charged back, playing with aggression to damage his rival, delivering his trademark drop shots while pulling level on his serve.
Moreover, the 21-year-old rushed to open a 3-0 lead, capitalizing on his opponent’s errors while dominating from the baseline.
For his part, the Wroclaw native failed to find the solutions he needed, neutralized by the young star who clinched the third set 6-3, becoming the third Spanish finalist in the tournament’s 52-year history.
He hit 39 winners against 32 unforced errors to Hurkacz’s 33 and 31, respectively.
In addition, he converted three of nine break points and won 80 percent of the points on his first serve.
On an 11-match winning streak this season, De Minaur will seek to stop Alcaraz from becoming the first player from Spain to lift the trophy in Rotterdam when they meet one another on Sunday’s championship match.
The former world number one leads Australia’s top racquet 2-0 in their series.