Hubert Hurkacz vs Sebastian Korda: 2023 Shanghai Masters - Preview & Prediction

| by Sebastian Dahlman

Hubert Hurkacz made it to the Shanghai Masters semi-final, and his reward is facing a red-hot Sebastian Korda.

Not many have played as much tennis lately as Sebastian Korda, who is playing the 3rd consecutive week. It's not the smartest thing in terms of possible injury management, but he probably didn't expect to have pretty good runs in three consecutive weeks, which is exactly what happened.

He first made it to the semi-final in Zhuhai, then to the final in Astana, and now back to a semi-final in Shanghai. That's a lot of tennis, and while fatigue is certainly in play, he doesn't mind playing after missing quite a bit of time in recent years.

Hubert Hurkacz has played a lot of tennis this week as well but mostly because his matches haven't been the cleanest. He's had a really impressive week so far using the fast conditions to grind out matches and he'll need to do it once more.

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Head-to-head:

Korda and Hurkacz have played twice so far on the ATP Tour, and each player has one win. In the final of Delray Beach two years ago, Hurkacz won in two sets. Korda won in five sets this year at the Australian Open, so generally, their matches tend to be somewhat close.

I expect another one of those, as both will likely be dominated on their serves, so this will likely end in a tiebreak or two.

Prediction:

So, who might do better in this very close battle? Well, it will largely depend on things that are impossible to predict. On one side, it will depend on the serve as Hurkacz can put up some serving clinics that are impossible to overcome.

Korda can be pretty unplayable from the baseline, but winning a point from a baseline is far harder than from the serve so essentially Hurkacz is the minor favourite simply due to having the more consistent serve. Either could easily win, but Hurkacz looks closer as he's less streaky.

Prediction: Hubert Hurkacz to win in three sets.

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