Hubert Hurkacz stuns with incredible ‘tweener’ as Báez falls in Rome Masters 1000

The Argentine Sebastián Báez was left with a bitter taste in his round of 16 duel of the Rome Masters 1000 against the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, currently 9th in the ranking. He fell 5-7, 7-6 and 6-4 in a match that lasted more than two and a half hours; and that left the feeling that the South American could not take advantage of his favorable moments to beat a Top Ten for the second time in his career.

However, this match will surely be repeated at the end of the year when it comes to selecting the best points of the year due to what happened on the first ball of the third game of the match. The Argentine was 2-0 up and the Pole was looking to recover with his serve. They played a series of short balls that made each other demand, but the one who put the icing on the cake was Hurkacz: he crossed the ball between his legs and unleashed a standing ovation from the Stadio Nicola Pietrangeli.

“A front-facing Tweener? That is simply unexpected,” stated the official ATP account after going viral about what happened in Italy. “Houdini Hurkacz. “How the hell did Hubert Hurkacz win this point?” asked the TennisTV profile.

The truth is that Seba, who has the best position of his career with 19th in the world, took that first set, but ended up forced to play a tie break in the second: he was 3-1 up in that definition, but the European won five consecutive balls (with two mini breaks) to go 6-3 and finish taking the second set with a 7-6.

In the third, Hurkacz gained a fundamental distance in the fifth game by breaking Báez’s service and then defending his services without problems, which led to the final 6-4. In the quarterfinals he will meet the North American Tommy Paul, although it should be noted that in that instance there will be South American representation by the Chileans Alejandro Tabilo Álvarez (he struck after eliminating Novak Djokovic) and Nicolás Jarry against the Chinese Zhang Zhizhen and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, respectively.

Báez, 23, will now focus on trying to surprise at Roland Garros, which will begin during the last days of May. Although he will previously be at the ATP 250 in Switzerland that will serve as preparation, where he appears as fifth seed. His compatriot Facundo Díaz Acosta also plans to be present at that event, while Francisco Cerúndolo will lead the Albiceleste legion as fourth seed that will be present next week at the ATP 250 in Lyon along with Tomás Martín Etcheverry and Mariano Navone.

2024-05-14 19:16:00
#point #year #Argentine #Sebastián #Báez #fell #Masters #Rome #suffered #Houdini #definition