Sebastian Korda was having a superb week in Shanghai, but the American won't play in the final as he couldn't overcome Hubert Hurkacz.
Every once in a while Hubert Hurkacz reminds all that he's a really good player capable of some amazing runs. The Polish player is a hard court specialist having grown up on the courts and he's a nuisance on fast ones particularly. He has a powerful serve and is really solid from the baseline avoiding huge error sprees.
He's essentially the perfect antidote for a player like Korda, who has a similar skillset but likes to play risky and has a far higher ceiling if things work out for him. Well, today, it didn't, as Hurkacz's consistency proved quite the antidote for Korda.
What makes this match interesting is that it wasn't really that close, which many expected. Hurkacz is a player who struggled greatly with breaking his opponent's serve but he broke Korda twice as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Considering the American's form, it's a pretty big deal.
You can't really say that Korda beat himself because he was actually really good, but Hurkacz simply played better. Sometimes, it's really that simple, but some trends are worth noting. Hurkacz was amazing on serve with 14 aces, losing only 7 points behind his first serve.
He was also pretty good on his second serve and basically didn't face a single break point. Losing a match in that type of situation is pretty hard. Korda, on the other hand, was good but not as good. He had 9 aces but lost more points on his serve and allowed four break points, and Hurkacz converted two of them, and that was the crucial part.
He moves on to the final where he awaits the winner of Dimitrov- Rublev later today.
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