Hubert Hurkacz won his second ATP Masters 1000 title after beating Andrey Rublev in the 2023 Shanghai Masters final.
Hurkacz is a very tricky player to play in conditions like these, as his serve does so much damage that it's really impossible to counter. Korda saw it best as he barely had any chances on return during the whole match, and Rublev certainly struggled with that early as well.
Hurkacz had his serve firing on all cylinders in the opening set with seven aces as he dropped two points behind his first serve. There was simply nothing Rublev could do, even though he didn't play that poorly.
He misfired a couple of times, which lost him his serve, and that was that. After losing his serve, Rublev had no chance to break back. He did break early in the second set, which was a perfect scenario for him.
It completely shifted the momentum back on his side, and Hurkacz aided him with a worse serve than in the opening set. Even so, it took a tremendously brilliant level from Rublev to take that second set 6-3.
He had 16 winners and only two unforced errors as he peeked similar to the match against Grigor Dimitrov, where he seemingly flipped a switch out of nowhere.
The final set proved very interesting to start, as both were hitting a really solid level. Rublev created a break chance, but Hurkacz and his serve didn't allow it to be converted.
It was pretty calm after that, as both players dominated on their serves comfortably. They were making their best Roger Federer impression as he watched the final from the stands after being honoured in a special ceremony on Saturday.
The match concluded in the tiebreak, which wasn't shocking, and the winner was Hurkacz, whose serve proved too vital in the tiebreak. He worked less for his points, and Rublev misfired too much a few times. The final score was 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(8) for the Polish player.
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